Was council's takeover of libraries 'unnecessary'?

A former board member of Suffolk's libraries says the county council's move to take over the service last year was "totally unnecessary".

The authority's scrutiny committee will meet next week to review the transition and performance of the library service since it was brought in-house from independent charity Suffolk Libraries in June.

Sylvia Knights, a board member of the charity, said: "A lot of people felt not just anger but grief at the situation because it was totally unnecessary."

The council admitted borrowing had gone down and costs had risen since the takeover but said the move was essential to protect the county's library service.

Independent charity Suffolk Libraries ran the county's libraries for 13 years under a contract with the county council.

But, in February last year, negotiations broke down and the authority decided to bring the service back in-house from 1 June 2025.

The council said at the time the charity had proposed unacceptable terms, including reducing opening hours by 30%.

It also raised concerns about the cost of the service's head office and senior managers.

The decision was met with criticism and there were protests outside the council meeting that approved the changes.

There was also a petition against the council that reached 5,000 signatures.

Suffolk Libraries also disputed the claims over the costs of senior managers.

The scrutiny committee will meet on Wednesday to explore the performance of the service since the takeover, the financial costs of the transition and staff morale.

The service, the report says, has remained unchanged, with all 45 branches operating as they were before the move to council control.

It notes, however, that borrowing has gone down by 27,000 compared to the same time the previous year.

The council says it has overspent by £800,000 on the core budget of £7.2m but that this is covered by the £1.8m transition fund put in place for the service move.

It also says annual savings of £340,000 have been made.

Six redundancies have been confirmed out of 349 staff.

Nadia Cenci, cabinet member for communities, said back-office functions such as HR and IT were integrated into existing council teams as part of the move.

"This has resulted in a small number of redundancies, and we were always clear that this could happen," she said.

"We recognise this is difficult for those affected and they are being supported through the process.

"These changes allow us to run the service efficiently and prioritise frontline library services for residents."

The report says it is a "mixed picture" on staff morale and that for many staff it been "very challenging given the level and length of the change period".

The charity that ran the library service is still operating as Suffolk Together and supports volunteer groups.

Knights, who has been a board member since 2012, said she found reading the report "galling".

She said: "Could the millions of pounds, plus the undisclosed sum of aligning staff with public sector rates, not have been better spent increasing the contract sum for Suffolk Libraries, enabling them to improve their staff remuneration and continue to deliver the excellent much valued and loved library service?"

She added the move had a "huge" impact on staff and that she was worried about the future of the service.

"All of the front-line staff that are still delivering the service, albeit under Suffolk County Council, are passionate about what they do and that is why the experience that people have will still probably be a good one, but in terms of the organisation that is running it, I don't believe that they will have the passion or the insight or the foresight to develop the service to be better in the future," said Knights.

Cenci said the move to take back control of the county's libraries was "never about the overall cost of the library service".

She continued: "At the time, we simply could not award the contract to Suffolk Libraries as they would not accept the proposed terms and their alternative proposals would have breached procurement law.

"There were also serious concerns about the organisation's financial viability, high back-office costs and their proposals to reduce library opening hours by around 30%.

"Our priority has always been protecting access to libraries for residents, which is what we've done. We have kept all 45 libraries open, maintained opening hours and protected frontline services.

"We are also investing in improvements such as replacing public computers, while continuing to support Friends groups and the volunteers who play a vital role in our libraries. We're helping Suffolk's much-loved community libraries to grow."

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