Nottinghamshire County Council members to discuss library shake-up plans

Members will discuss progress on Nottinghamshire County Council’s plans to establish an independent charitable body or trust to deliver its libraries, archives, arts and community learning services at its next Culture Committee meeting on 3rd June.
Community event.Community event.
Community event.

The county council agreed plans at February’s full council meeting to move the delivery of its library service to an organisation at arm’s length, to give people a greater say in the running of their local library, reduce costs, enable the service to become more enterprising and apply for new sources of funding as a charitable body or trust.

Library buildings, book stock, and other key assets would remain in the ownership of the county council, which would also maintain the duty to provide a library service and control what the service provided through a legal agreement and contract.

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Nottinghamshire’s proposals form part of a three-year plan for the library service which it believes would help save £1m for the authority.

Coun John Knight, Culture Committee Chairman for Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “We are passionate about doing all in our power to safeguard our library services in the face of the budget challenge that is facing the whole authority.

“The proposal for an arm’s length operating model to deliver our library service which was agreed at Full Council in February is about providing a sustainable, modern and accessible library service for all.

“We are committed to modernising our library service, and this gives us the opportunity to be more enterprising and creative to achieve this to benefit our library users and communities.”

Following the progress report to the Culture Committee on 3rd June, a public engagement plan will begin to inform public opinion and gather views of customers, stakeholders and the wider community.