Volunteers badly treated on libraries - councillor

Further consultation will take place over the future of libraries, including this one in Mirfield

Community groups have been left feeling "poorly treated" over unpopular plans for library services in Kirklees, a councillor has said.

Kirklees Council had proposed putting local volunteers in charge of eight of its 24 libraries, but made a U-turn after a study found people were "overwhelmingly" against the idea.

Its new proposal is to reduce staff across all of its 24 libraries, as it tries to make savings of more than £900,000.

At a meeting to discuss the plans, Conservative councillor John Taylor said while he was pleased to see the Labour administration had listened to communities, relations had been strained with community groups left feeling "bruised".

'Damaged trust'

The Kirkburton representative said: "This was poorly communicated, there wasn’t active engagement with ward councillors. Ward councillors weren’t involved with the consultations."

Taylor said the original plan had caused some volunteers to consider leaving their roles, not only in libraries but elsewhere.

He added: "We have damaged the trust with our volunteers, and trust is easy to damage but difficult to rebuild and we need to be starting that rebuilding exercise now."

The eight libraries which would have been affected were Honley, Meltham, Marsden, Kirkheaton, Skelmanthorpe, Denby Dale, Mirfield and Shepley, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Labour council leader Carole Pattison said: "I do have to agree with you that it certainly sounds as if better consultation etc could have happened.

"I’m glad you’ve said we have listened because obviously we have and I hope you do approve of the recommendations that we’ve got here going forward with this further consultation."

Councillor Amanda Pinnock, cabinet member for education and communities, said: "We have a brilliant library service that goes above and beyond to support our communities in Kirklees.

"I want to thank everyone who has already engaged with us about the future of our libraries.

"While we have taken into consideration feedback from community stakeholders on our original proposals, we still have difficult decisions to make due to the tough financial circumstances that all councils are facing."

She said she hoped people would engage with a further consultation due to be held in the autumn.

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