Sandwell libraries - sensationalist report in the Express and Star

The piece - headed "BIG SHAKE-UP FOR LIBRARIES - Services could close under cost-cutting move" - is an alarmist interpretation of a detailed report going to a council committee in the near future.

The council believes that the Express & Star piece misleads its readers by giving the impression that many crucial decisions about the future of our libraries have already been taken.

It entirely misses the point that the report going to the committee is a carefully considered summary of options for the future of libraries, which will now form the basis of widespread consultations with library users and the community as a whole BEFORE any decisions are taken.

The council is also disappointed that the Express & Star - for whatever reasons of its own - decided NOT to print those parts of the statement we gave the paper about our plans for consultations and our intention to safeguard library services.

For the record, here is that statement - from Councillor Steve Eling, deputy leader and cabinet member for strategic resources - in full:

"This paper looks at options for improving the council's library services while at the same time dealing with swingeing budget cuts imposed by central government across all council services.

"The paper makes a number of suggestions and raises ideas that will form the basis of consultation with regular library users and the community as a whole.

"As a council, we have managed to deal with over £30 million of government budget cuts for the current year without closing any libraries.

"And we are looking to safeguard library facilities in future years when we will be facing more massive government cuts."

Councillor Eling has sent a letter of protest to the paper, which he is asking them to print, in an effort to inform readers of the realities of the situation facing our libraries.

Here is that letter in full:

Dear Sir,

I would like to express in the strongest terms my frustration at your paper's front page story 'Big shake-up for libraries' tonight (Thursday 14 July).

This story will have unnecessarily frightened Sandwell residents and library staff alike.

In my opinion, the story was an alarmist interpretation of a council paper that puts forward ideas on how we can improve our library services while also dealing with swingeing central government budget cuts.

The article also failed to mention key points that were made to you in our press statement.

Crucially, my comments that this paper would be a basis for consultation to talk to library users, staff and the wider community and that "we are looking to safeguard library facilities in future years" were not included.

I would stress that the paper makes no proposals to close any libraries.

Looking at other ways of locating libraries is not the same as closing them. We have, for example, recently re-located two libraries at Oldbury and Blackheath very successfully into spaces shared with partners and no-one is suggesting these are closures.

I also utterly reject the suggestion in your story that we "hope to axe paid workers". There is no threat of compulsory redundancies, and nowhere in our paper is this mentioned.

The story talks of the council "slashing" budgets by almost £1 million as if this will happen immediately. The reality is that, as responsible managers, we are planning on the basis of a provisional reduction of £900,000 over three years but no hard and fast decisions on budgets have yet been taken.

Budget cuts imposed upon us by central government have left us with no choice but to look at all the options on how we provide library services in the future.

And in this paper we are setting out to our library users, staff and the wider community ideas and suggestions on how we can provide the best services possible to meet their needs. Staff and Friends groups have been actively involved in developing this paper.

Once we've heard what people now have to say, we can then bring forward proposals for further consultation and decisions later in the year.

But at all times our main aim is to safeguard library services in very difficult economic times.

Yours faithfully,

Steve Eling

Sandwell Council Deputy Leader & Cabinet Member for Strategic Resources

Library users can also access the report going to the council's Leisure Services cabinet advisory team.