Council brought to book
David O'Leary • Published 16 Sep 2011 09:30
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INNERLEITHEN bookworms have reacted angrily to proposed cuts in library opening hours in the town.
Scottish Borders Council plans to cut Innerleithen Library's opening hours despite seeing a recent rise in user numbers.
Moves are also afoot to relocate the local authority contact centre within the facility.
Library user Gill Rennie said: "Innerleithen is a growing town and the council should be looking at ways to perhaps increase library opening hours not reduce them.
"When Peebles Library was closed for refurbishment, Innerleithen was open longer to compensate and whilst there were customers from Peebles, there was also an increased amount of Innerleithen customers.
"This obviously shows that the people of Innerleithen would use the library if it was open longer."
A council source has revealed that there is not enough money in the pot to fund extra staffing costs for extended opening.
The library's new proposed hours will be - Monday 10am to 1pm, Tuesday 3pm to 7pm, Thursday 1pm to 5pm and Friday 1pm to 4pm.
Ms Rennie added: "This means that there will only be one day a week when people getting home from work and school after 5pm will be able to visit the library."
Local chair of Innerleithen Community Trust, Ross McGinn, is likewise outraged at any reduction in opening hours.
He said: "Locals are very angry about these proposed changes. This is purely to save money and has nothing to do with serving the community. The plan is for contact centre staff to be trained as librarians and vice versa, rather than two decent services we'll end up with just one average service.
"It's a slippery slope. I urge all locals who are concerned about this to make their views known to the council."
The Innerleithen changes come following a region-wide review of libraries.
A council spokesman said: "The purpose of this current review is to provide sustainable solutions that will allow the council to continue to provide library and contact centre services in all of the settlements where they are currently provided against a background of reduced budgets, the need to make efficiencies, declining usage and a change in the way that customers can access services.
"In Innerleithen, the reduction in hours has been kept as small as possible and reflects the council's commitment to retain services locally in the face of reducing budgets."
This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 16 Sep 11
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