Plans Change for Oxforshire's Libraries

2 December 2011, 12:00

Plans to have Oxfordshire's libraries run by volunteers have been scaled back.

Nearly five thousand people took part in the four month public consultation, with a final decision being announced on 12th December.

Heart's been told Oxfordshire County Council has made new recommendations, which would see all 43 libraries remain open, with 22 continuing to be fully staffed by council employees.

16 of the libraries would be run by a mix of council employees and volunteers, with the remaining five run by a mixture of two thirds employees and one third volunteers.

This is a change to the plans put forward in May, which would have seen 16 of the libraries staffed with only a third of council employees, with the rest of the staff being volunteers.

The council says it's too soon to say how many jobs could be lost through these proposals, but that if the changes are approved they would take three years to come into force.

Councillor David Robertson, the Deputy Leader of Oxfordshire County Council said:

"Unfortunately we in Oxfordshire, like all areas of the country, are faced with having to make significant financial cutbacks across almost all areas of the services we provide. It is impossible to exempt the Library Service from this, however we have proposed a plan that would see all our libraries remain operational."

The council also wants to look at other ways of using all library buildings, to get the most use out of them.