Do you remember the Big Conversation that Norfolk County Council ran some time ago? 96k felt at the time that in general you, the public, were not particularly well informed about the process. However well publicised it was, it still ran. Here is a follow up consultation from County about some options regarding the running of our public libraries.
Please get involved, have your say, after all these community assets belong to you!
Cultural Services
Community Services Department
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich
NR1 2UA
Tel: 01603 222 272
Email: jennifer.holland@norfolk.gov.uk
12th May 2011
Dear Sir / Madam
Last autumn, faced with cuts in government grant and rising service demands and costs, we launched Norfolk’s Big Conversation. We asked you for your views on the role of Norfolk County Council, on our principles for planning services for the next three years and on the big decisions the County Council needs to make in order to meet the challenges set by the reduction in public spending.
The Budget was approved at Norfolk County Council’s Full Council meeting on 14th February 2011. We listened very carefully to the comments we received during the Big Conversation, where people told us that they valued their local libraries highly. Some people suggested that we could look at reducing the opening hours as a way of saving money.
All libraries in Norfolk will stay open. However, the Library and Information Service still needs to save a total of £1.49 million over the next three years. To help us make this level of savings we will reduce library opening hours by an average of 10% across the county.
Library staff have looked at all the information that we hold about how and when local libraries are used and they have come up with some options for how we can reduce opening hours at every library to help save costs. The proposed options are based on the times when the libraries are least busy. We would now like your views on these options to help us confirm the new opening hours for your library.
We are now in the process of consulting with library users and the local community about the options for the new opening hours. The consultation started on 11th May 2011 and closes on 13th June 2011.
This consultation is shorter than we normally undertake. The reason for this is that we need to make the savings to our budget this year, so any changes to hours that we make need to start in October. For this to happen we need to make the decision on library opening hours in July.
There are consultation documents available in libraries and there is an online consultation feedback form available at www.surveymonkey.com/norfolk-libraries-consultation
At the same time as seeking people’s views on the revised pattern of opening hours, we are keen to talk to councils and community groups about ways we can work together to maintain and develop the Library and Information Service. For example, there may be innovative ways that communities can support library services as an alternative to reducing hours, or there may be people who would like to volunteer to support library users during opening times.
If you would like to discuss how we can work together to develop the service from your local library, please will you contact me on the address or email address above.
Yours sincerely
Jennifer Holland
Assistant Director of Community Services – Cultural Services and
Head of Norfolk Library and Information Service
