Agenda item - Public Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by members of the public:

(a)          Petitions: To receive any petitions presented by members of the public to the full Council or at the meeting itself. To consider the petition presented by Councillor Wells at Full Council on 31 January 2019 in relation to Hove Carnegie Library (copy attached);

(b)       Written Questions: To receive any questions submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 5 March 2019;

(c)        Deputations: To receive any deputations submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 5 March 2019.

59.1    It was noted that a petition had been forwarded from the meeting of Full Council held on 31 January 2019 in relation to Hove Carnegie Library Pages 21 and 22 of the Agenda referred and Mr Hawtree the Lead Petitioner was invited to speak to his petition set out below:

“We, the undersigned Carnegie readers, who have endured over three years’ anxiety about our Library, are now aghast to find that the Council’s current Administration proposes our libraries’ reduction be a swingeing “242,000. We request that this be halted while Councillors explore the return in-house of bibliographical services – such as a book selection - to our esteemed librarians.”

59.2    The Chair, Councillor Daniel responded in the following terms:

“Thank you for presenting the petition, it is good to know that people support and value their public libraries, as does this administration which has kept all the libraries open and doubled libraries’ opening hours to increase accessibility.

The proposed £242,000 savings was reduced to £121,000 in Budget Council on 28^th February in order to help safeguard the future of our libraries.

In regard to bringing bibliographic service in-house, the council would have to recruit specialist staff to run an in-house bibliographic service and this would cost considerably more than the £65K we current pay Bertram’s. This cost has already reduced by 13% down from £75k in 2010.

In regard to book selection, it is worth noting that the Library Service already retain the responsibility for book selection, and carry out this role in a number of ways. This includes creating purchasing profiles for obvious book-buying such as getting the latest publications from top-selling authors, as well as selecting some of the more esoteric or locally focused stock themselves.”

59.3    Councillor West welcomed the response given and the steps which had been taken to seek to safeguard the library offer available. He considered it would be helpful however if Members could be briefed on how budgets would be managed going forward and services would continue to be supported.

59.4    Councillor Peltzer Dunn concurred in that view stating that inclusion of details relating to book choices, options and customer satisfaction would be welcomed. Whilst much had been done he considered that some “problems” in respect of Hove Library remained to be solved.

59.5    RESOLVED – That the contents of the petition be noted and received and that a further report be provided ideally to the scheduled July meeting of the Committee (Item 65 also refers).

59b     Written Questions

59.6    There were none.

59c     Deputations

59.7    There were none.