‘Significant changes’ have been made to the cost-cutting measures
Reduced hours will be in force at the likes of Leicester’s Central Library(Image: Google)
Controversial major cuts to Leicester’s libraries and community centres have been scrapped.
The cost-cutting measures, which would have seen Leicester City Council give up the operational running of several sites in the city and make cuts to staff, looked to save £2.1 million a year, but the authority has now “significantly changed” its proposals following consultation with Leicester residents.
Revised proposals are now set to deliver savings of £1.57 million per year instead. These will still see a reduction in staff numbers at city libraries and community centres, albeit smaller than the previous proposal.
The new measures mean that library and community services would 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, the council added.
Five community centres are to be offered for the community to run – down on the previously proposed 11. These include Braunstone Frith Recreation Centre, Coleman Neighbourhood Centre, Eyres Monsell Community Centre, Gilmorton Community Rooms and the Tudor Centre.
Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre and Rushey Mead Recreation Centre would continue to be run by the council, it added.
Additional proposals outlined by the council include:
Changes to proposed opening hours, which would see all multi-service centres and the Central Library 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.In Netherhall, either the Armadale Centre or Netherhall Neighbourhood centre could become a community-run facility.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.Fosse Neighbourhood Centre and Library would close. The city council said it would work in partnership with Alice Hawkins Community Projects, which operates from the annexe of the building, to support them to relocate nearby.
The council said it 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.
The Eyres Monsell Community Centre will be among the sites offered to the community to run(Image: Google)
The “significant changes” have sparked outrage from Leicester Conservatives who have accused the Labour-run city council of misleading residents over the future of Leicester’s libraries and community centres. They said that Labour had claimed to have “protected services”, but had in fact cut funding.
The Tories also disputed the term “community-led” too, saying this was in fact “defunding and walking away” by Labour councillors.
Councillor Hemant Rae Bhatia, leader of the opposition, said: “Labour councillors are trying to take credit for services they just defunded. People aren’t stupid. Centres in Labour majority wards are being dumped while they preside over decisions to waste millions elsewhere”.
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.
“As 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.”
Cllr Dempster said the authority had established “early interest” from the community in taking over the likes of Braunstone Frith Recreation Centre and that the Armadale Centre or Netherhall Neighbourhood centre “could become a community-run facility”.
She said: “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.”
The city council said more than 6,000 people took part in the online consultation, and over 1,000 more attended the 12 community meetings and 15 drop-in meetings the council held across the city. The council said a formal executive decision on the revised proposals is due to be made in early December.
