Resolved –

Council notes that:

• The budget passed at Full Council in February this year anticipates £1,050,000 being cut from Museums and Libraries in 2020/21 as a result of Tory Government cuts.
• Libraries serve an essential role in education and as community hubs for all ages.
• Museums provide a valuable educational and cultural resource to all ages.
• Libraries and museums need to be as accessible to people as possible, many of whom may not have their own transport or have the means to pay for public transport.
• Baildon and Clayton are examples of libraries which have successfully run under the hybrid model using a mixture of paid staff and volunteers for the past two years.
• The Local Studies Collection is an essential resource and must remain available to the people of the Bradford District.
• Libraries, like all valued public services, have suffered due to the Tory Government’s austerity cuts. Since 2010 several hundred libraries have closed across the UK, with almost 130 public libraries closing in 2018 alone. In addition, Public Libraries News estimates that the number of libraries which are community-run increased from around 10 in 2010 to around 500 in 2017.
• In Bradford District we continue to work hard to maintain high-quality provision within the reducing national budgets. Bradford Council’s net budget in 2020 will be around half what it was in 2020 in real terms. To date only one library in the district has been lost during this sustained period of Tory austerity.

Council resolves:

• To undertake an engagement exercise, gaining a wide range of views from library users, non users, staff, parish and town councils, volunteers and other stakeholders on how they want to see the library service of the future.
• Not to draw up any options or make any decisions on the future of the libraries or museum services until this engagement exercise with the public is complete.
• To listen, to publish those findings and to carry out further detailed and proper consultation in order to move forward and build a sustainable service for the future.

·         To thank our library and museum staff for their dedication to the service and to the Bradford District public in these difficult times of austerity. To acknowledge the great contribution made by the volunteers in the community managed libraries.

ACTION:       Strategic Director Place