Issue - meetings

Review of Library Services

Meeting: 14/02/2013 - Cabinet (Item 106)

106 Review of Library Services PDF 240 KB

Report of the Strategic Director – Place

Prior to the consideration of the report, the Cabinet will hear representations from the following lead petitioners (maximum of 5 minutes for each petition) who have submitted petitions requesting the Council to keep the following libraries open:

· Ainsdale – Ms M. Horridge

· Ainsdale, Birkdale and Churchtown – Councillor Dawson

· Aintree – Mr W. Honeyman

· Birkdale – Mrs M. McQueen

· College Road, Crosby – Councillor Tonkiss

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet heard representations from the following lead petitioners who had submitted petitions requesting the Council to keep the following libraries open:

· Ainsdale – Ms M. Horridge

· Ainsdale, Birkdale and Churchtown – Councillor Dawson

· Aintree – Mr W. Honeyman

· Birkdale – Mrs M. McQueen

· College Road, Crosby – Ms H. Short

· College Road, Crosby – Councillor Tonkiss

Further to Minutes No. 65 of the meeting held on 11 October 2012, the Cabinet then considered the report of the Strategic Director – Place which provided an update on the Review of Library Services, including the outcomes from the consultation exercise and outlined options for consideration emerging from the review and consultation.

This report was arranged in a number of sections with associated annexes as indicated below:

	Annex
Petitions	A
Analysis of questionnaires	B
Analysis of consultation in addition to questionnaires	C
Sefton Council for Voluntary Services letter	D
Birkdale Library Action Group letter	E
Public Sector Equality Duty – Analysis Report	F
List of Background documents and reports	G

The Chair referred to the addendum note, setting out various amendments to the content of the report. The Strategic Director reported that the word “Rank” should be added to columns 2 and 5 in the Annex PSED A (page 211), within Annex F of the report

The Chair thanked the Lead Petitioners for attending the meeting to address the Cabinet and indicated that the Council would consider any sustainable and feasible options from voluntary organisations and charitable bodies for the operation of the library service.

Members of the Cabinet raised questions on the following issues referred to in the report and officers responded to the Issues as indicated below:

Councillor Cummins requested the officers to continue to examine the feasibility of all options submitted during the consultation exercise in order to establish whether they were sustainable and viable especially with regard to the current condition of the library buildings within the Borough and the costs of maintenance.

Councillor Hardy sought assurance that the equality implications of the Option B Proposals had been fully evaluated.

Response:

The Director of Corporate Commissioning indicated that the equality implications had been considered and set out in the pre options report submitted to the Cabinet on 11 October 2012. The Public Sector Equality Duty Analysis Report set out in Annex F of the report submitted to this meeting provided details of how the equality implications had been evaluated and he referred to the conclusions set out in that annex. The Library Services staff had been assisted by staff within his Directorate and by an Independent Equalities Adviser on the equalities analysis and he assured the Cabinet that all of the equality implications had been fully evaluated.

Councillor Maher enquired how the implementation plan for the delivery of the revised library service would be delivered and how it would fit in to the Strategic Plan for Libraries.

Response:

The Strategic Director – Place indicated that the implementation plan would only be produced once the Council made the final ... view the full minutes text for item 106