11:06am Tuesday 18th January 2011
By Rachel Masker
IT could be the end of the road for 13 mobile libraries under cost-cutting plans being considered by county council chiefs.
Hampshire’s fleet of book buses is set to be slashed from 19 to six to save £600,000 a year.
Public sector union Unison is fighting the proposals which will see 18 full-time jobs axed and leave just 345 stops every month across the county compared with the current 1,200 every fortnight.
Under the proposals, no mobile libraries will stop in areas which are less than two miles from a library building.
But library bosses say every rural community that currently gets a visit from a van will continue to do so although there could be fewer stops per village.
Managers plan to monitor how many people use the service in future. If there are consistently fewer than ten people using any one stop it could be scrapped in 2012.
The council is also proposing to end mobile library visits to care homes and charge for delivering boxes of books to elderly residents – a service that is currently free.
Other proposals include using more volunteers to deliver books to disabled people and the elderly housebound.
Library shop steward Steve Squibbs accused the council of “targeting the most vulnerable and isolated of Hampshire’s residents”.
He said: “In their rush to push through cuts, the county council will be leaving many elderly and disabled people without any access to library services.
“The idea of charging care homes for deposit collections is a scandal – who else in Hampshire has to pay to access library services in this way?”
Unison is calling for local communities to organise a campaign to protect the county’s library service – something which is happening across the country.
Councillor Margaret Snaith, who is in charge of libraries, has previously warned closing smaller branches cannot be ruled out in future.
County chiefs say visits to mobile libraries have fallen from 266,0000 a year in 2005 to 204,000 in 2010. Meanwhile, costs have risen.
Cllr Snaith said: “Hampshire County Council’s mobile library service has been in operation for over 40 years and has never been comprehensively reviewed, leaving it neither efficient nor sustainable in these tight financial times. The new structure was devised through consultation with current users, district, town and parish councils, but to make sure we have incorporated everything we are now asking people to make further comments.”
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