Agenda and minutes

The Chairman announced that sadly Cllr Maurice Broomfield had passed away on Tuesday 7 June 2016, following a period of ill-health.

Apologies were received from Stuart Cross, Paul Tuthill and Liz Tucker.

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services  in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 12 July 2016).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 25 May 2016 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Localism and Communities and the Head of Service for Communities were invited to the meeting to discuss the responses to the County Council's engagement process on the proposals around the reduction of public library opening hours and in turn, the reduction in front line staffing hours.

At its meeting on 25 May 2016, the Panel discussed the proposals to reduce library opening hours by 76.5hrs in total across the county (excluding The Hive) and agreed that a further discussion would take place when the analysis of the public engagement process was available.

The CMR explained to the Panel that since the previous discussion, there had been further public engagement resulting in the proposed reduction in library opening hours being reduced to 55 hours (not 76.5 as previously proposed).  Comments made by Councillors, Stakeholders, staff and library users had been taken into account alongside the comments made at the previous scrutiny panel to arrive at the current proposals.

During the discussion the following main points were made:

·         No changes were planned for the Hive or Catshill, Pershore, Wythall or Warndon Libraries.

·         In terms of the process for gathering views, it was confirmed that public engagement (rather than consultation) had been carried out.  Public engagement sessions, timings of which were decided by the Library Manager had been held in every library.  Library Managers also talked to service users as and when the opportunity had occurred.

·         There was concern that little or no feedback had been received for Bewdley, Broadway, Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Evesham, Tenbury or Upton Libraries in comparison with some of the other libraries.  In response, the Panel were advised that there was confidence that if there had been any real feeling about the suggested changes, Library Managers would have been made aware,

·         It was confirmed that all local Councillors and stakeholders had been asked for their feedback.

·         A suggestion was made that all District, Town and Parish councils should be notified of the final changes to opening hours.

·         Up to date signage for libraries also needed addressing.