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Politicians continue to squabble over future of libraries
Labour members fear that exclusion of councillors from designing a future library strategy will leave them with a “fait accompli”.
A draft outline strategy created by a cross-party task group and presented on Friday morning, recommended setting up a board of council officers who will design a future strategy for libraries.
Labour councillors, some of whom were also on the task group, presented an amended version of these recommendations, diverting the conversation once again to library closures.
The revenue budget for all Bristol libraries for 2026 has been protected in full – photo: Martin Booth
Addressing members of the public health and communities committee on Friday morning, Bristol Labour deputy leader, Carole Johnson said: “The full strategy will be designed by officers who will be looking to deliver savings within their service.
“The next time the committee will see this is when it comes back for rubber-stamping. Though I think we should use the opportunity to rule it out of scope and state we will not support closures.”
Johnson said they had previously been assured of “apparently no current plans of closures”, but deemed it necessary that the committee as a whole relay this assurance to the public.
The councillor for Horfield continued: “The task group has done the easy bit. There are a lot of commendable principles in there, but it will now get down to the nitty-gritty.
“The tough part is designing a service within a spending envelope that has not increased with inflation, and we are not involved in that part. If everyone is opposed to closures, then it should not be controversial.
“But I am a bit worried that by handing such a large piece of work over to officers, we may just be presented with a fait accompli.”
The proposed outline strategy includes ways of improving “access” to libraries – photo: Martin Booth
Green councillor for Redland, Fi Hance, said it had been clarified “over and over again” in the task group that this strategy is not about opening or closing buildings.
She added: “It simply hasn’t formed part of the consideration of this strategy. It is entirely inappropriate to bring buildings into it at this stage.
“Labour members, the ones who attended, are fully aware of that. So I’m really, really disappointed that this has come up once again in this forum.
“It seems unfortunate that after all this good work, there’s an attempt to score party political points and an attempt to scaremonger people into thinking we are considering closing or opening libraries through this process.”
A Labour-led petition to save Bristol’s libraries has been signed by more than 5,000 people – photo: Martin Booth
Hance said that this was “really bad faith” on part of the Labour Party and was “not okay”. She added that the key point to be taken out of the strategy was improving “access” to library services.
Chair of the committee and Lib Dem councillor Stephen Williams said: “We’ve got a really busy public access across a whole range of issues the committee is responsible for. Yet there are no questions or statements about libraries amongst the hundreds we’ve had.”
He added that libraries had been a “substantial item” bought before the council for nearly 15 years, and this was the first time this had not been the case.
The draft outline strategy created by a cross-party task group was discussed at a council meeting on Friday morning
Williams added: “And that has not happened by accident. It has happened because I think the public mood has changed and that they realise that for the first time in a long time, libraries are actually in safe hands.”
He acknowledged that the Lib Dems’ collaborative work with Green colleagues had ensured that the revenue budget for 2026 was “fully protected”.
A Labour-led petition launched by party leader Tom Renhard to “save Bristol’s libraries” has been signed by more than 5,000 people.
Williams added that Labour’s “scaremongering was unhelpful” and “not being received well” by the public, based on his judgment from Facebook comments on the petition.
The Labour Party’s amended version of the recommendations was ultimately voted against, with the original unamended version receiving unanimous votes.
Findings from the outline strategy will be used to launch a second phase of planning, which will culminate in the creation of a detailed five-year strategy for the future of city library services by May 2026.
Main photo: Karen Johnson
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