THE city council will continue to run 15 of Leicester’s libraries, and three busy neighbourhood centres – Belgrave, Rushey Mead and Thurnby Lodge – will stay within council control, if recommendations being put forward are approved.
The recommendations follow one of the most extensive consultation exercises ever run by the city council, as it sought views on initial proposals to change the way it operates its libraries and community centres service.
As a result of the consultation, the proposals put forward in April have been significantly changed.
These original proposals included operating services from 12 multi-service centres, and the Central Library; and for making 11 buildings available for the local community to run, including Evington, Knighton and Rushey Mead libraries, Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre and Rushey Mead Recreation Centre.
More than 6,000 people took part in the online consultation, while over 1,000 more attended the 12 community meetings and 15 drop-in meetings the council held across the city.
Cllr Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for libraries and community centres, said: “We embarked on this huge consultation programme because we know how important these services are to people, and we really wanted to hear people’s thoughts before any decisions were made.
The council has always said, this was never a closure programme, it was about finding ways to protect these services in the face of ongoing budget cuts, and to ensure they continue to be available across the whole city.
“People made it clear to us that they want the council to continue to run libraries, even if it meant a reduction in staffed opening hours, and this is reflected in the recommendations now being put forward for the council to continue to run Evington, Knighton and Rushey Mead libraries.
“We found from our evidence gathering that Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre and Rushey Mead Recreation Centre have such a packed programme of well-used activities on offer there would be no capacity for a community group to take them over and introduce their own business model. For this reason, the recommendation is that the council will continue to operate these centres.
“We also established that there is a lot of early interest from community groups in taking over Braunstone Frith Recreation Centre, Coleman Neighbourhood Centre, Eyres Monsell Community Centre, Gilmorton Community Rooms, and the Tudor Centre. Additionally, in Netherhall, either the Armadale Centre or Netherhall Neighbourhood centre could become a community-run facility.
“The council would support community groups to develop business plans as part of the Community Asset Transfer process, if this goes ahead. We know from our experience with the New Parks Neighbourhood Centre – now known as Team Hub – the Grove in Braunstone and the African Caribbean Centre that this is a model that is very successful in delivering a much greater range of services for local people.
“We are also determined to continue to involve communities to help us to ensure that all of these services are well-used and more income is generated as a result.”
Recommendations resulting from the consultation include:
- Library and community services to be operated from 12 multi-service centres across the city, in areas including Beaumont Leys and Highfields – as well as from Leicester’s Central Library. These sites will be open between 30 and 40 hours a week
- In response to comments received in the consultation, changes have been made to proposed opening hours, so that every multi-service centre and the Central Library would be staffed and open on Saturdays and until 6pm on at least one evening a week.
- St Matthews Library would relocate to St Matthews Children's, Young People and Family Centre, so that it is still on the St Matthews estate and close to Taylor Road school.
- Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre and Rushey Mead Recreation Centre would continue to be run by the council. The council would work with the local community to improve the centres’ financial sustainability.
- Customer self-access would be implemented at a further six libraries (New Parks, the BRITE Centre library, Belgrave, Hamilton, Pork Pie and St Barnabas), in addition to some staffed hours.
- Five community centres would be offered for the community to run – Braunstone Frith Recreation Centre, Coleman Neighbourhood Centre, Eyres Monsell Community Centre, Gilmorton Community Rooms and the Tudor Centre. Additionally, in Netherhall, either the Armadale Centre or Netherhall Neighbourhood centre could become a community-run facility.
- Fosse Neighbourhood Centre and Library would close due to the low usage of the facility and poor condition of the building. However, the city council would work in partnership with Alice Hawkins Community Projects, which operates from the annexe of the building, to support them to relocate nearby.
If approved, the revised plans would deliver proposed savings of £1.57m per year, contributing to the £23m of savings the council needs to make to balance its budget. Financial savings from the original proposals were up to £2.1m, so the council would need to look elsewhere to make up the shortfall.
The proposals would result in a reduction of staff numbers, although this would be smaller than in the previous proposal. Discussions have taken place with staff about the proposals. Council policy is to seek to redeploy staff to avoid redundancies wherever possible.
The council would also invest in key buildings to enable them to operate as hubs, bringing together a range of services provided by the council and partners.
A formal executive decision on the revised proposals is due to be made in early December.