Library closure critic warns plans hark back to ‘Victorian times’

Community and childcare groups could offer a lifeline to most of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s at-risk libraries, the local authority has said.

But a series of imminent closures risks sending parts of the borough “back to Victorian times”, a critic has warned.

The council plans to shut down ten of its smaller libraries at the end of August as part of cost-cutting plans to make the service “sustainable and resilient”.

The local authority will instead “focus resources on an improved offer at seven library ‘hubs’”, Cllr Carol Andrews, the cabinet member for education, told a committee on Tuesday July 15.

Committee members heard there is local interest in Community Asset Transfers of the council libraries in Aberbargoed, Abertridwr, Llanbradach and Nelson.

Meanwhile, the library buildings in Deri and Pengam have been “identified as good locations” for the expansion of the Welsh Government’s Flying Start childcare programme.

This could involve some “minor building work” at both sites, but the council’s early years service has also confirmed it would “be able to support an independent community library offer from each location”.

Library closures will also be mitigated by a new Community Outreach Service, including order-and-collect options and digital offers.

Council figures are keen to paint these potential developments as a success.

Recently, Cllr Sean Morgan, who leads the authority, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the closures were “something we have to do because of finances, and I see the opportunity there for communities”.

The council has argued it would save £507,000 annually by shutting the libraries, and develop the “hubs” into places where visitors can access local authority and third-sector services, as well as the usual book-borrowing.

But there remains a vocal opposition to the library closures across the county borough.

Campaigners have warned the council will isolate smaller communities by taking away important community spaces, to the detriment of their youngest, oldest or lowest-income residents.

This week, Caerphilly Trades Union Council called libraries “so much more than book depositories” and urged the local authority to rethink the closures.

Its secretary, Mariam Kamish, told the committee that despite the council’s optimism for community handovers and an outreach service, “nothing in your plans can in any way replace bricks-and-mortar libraries with dedicated staff”.

“We don’t want to go back to Victorian times when people had to run their own libraries,” she added.

Senior council officer Rob Hartshorn defended the Community Asset Transfers, however, telling the committee it would offer a “social return, instead of a financial return” to the local authority.

The meeting also heard from Cllr Brenda Miles, who was a member of the committee until a recent row over the council’s handling of the libraries issue ended in her being “removed from all internal and external appointments”.

Cllr Miles told the committee the imminent closures would mean a “great loss” to the borough, and she expected “by now” there to be a “clear picture” of what comes next.

The council report on the next steps “raises more questions than answers”, she added.