A consultation into major cuts to Bradford’s library service has been slammed by councillors, with some questioning if it even met equality rules.
And they also raised concerns that the cash-strapped council was having to pay £420,000 a year to lease one of its libraries.
Over the past week, Bradford Council has held a number of public consultations to discuss how it plans to slash almost £1m from its library budget in the next year.
But at a meeting to discuss the cuts, councillors had a long list of criticisms over the way the consultations were carried out, saying they ignored the district’s more diverse areas, that they were hastily arranged, and that one consultation event started an hour late.
No libraries will be closed under the proposed cuts. Changes will see libraries in Bradford city centre, Shipley and Keighley become “community hubs” that will offer a wider variety of services, and oversee work done by other libraries within those hub areas.
But cuts will mean back office jobs are lost, and that library resources are cut.
And all this will be followed by another £1 million of cuts in the 2020/21 financial year.
Consultation events into the changes were held at libraries in Wibsey, Eccleshill, Keighley, Ilkley and Shipley over the past week.
The council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee discussed the cuts at a meeting on Tuesday. During a sometimes heated debate, members questioned why some areas of the District, including Bingley and Manningham, had been ignored.
Coun Mohammed Amran (Lab, Heaton) said: “What about Manningham Library? There seems to have been no consultation in the Bradford West area. Why haven’t you consulted with the people of Heaton, Manningham and Toller? There wasn’t anything in these inner city areas. These are very diverse communities, and it is not acceptable that they have been ignored in this consultation. You need to consult with all communities, to be honest I don’t think this meets equality standards.”
Officers nodded their heads while Cllr Amran was speaking, and he replied: “It’s no good you coming here and nodding your heads. You need to consult with all service users, whether they are in Manningham or Bingley.”
Members of the committee were also told that councillors had not been directly invited to the meetings – although there had been public and press notices.
Officers were quizzed on why the Shipley consultation, advertised to take place at 3pm on Saturday, did not start until 4pm.
This article originally appeared on The Yorkshire Post
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