The difference between the Isle of Wight council keeping all eleven Isle of Wight libraries open and making the cut-backs that they proposed and approved is just £236,000 it was revealed last night.
As last night’s Cabinet meeting, Cllr Bob Blezzard asked …
Given that it has proved possible to reduce the proposed saving requirement for the Isle of Wight Library Service from £632K to £350K within the last three weeks, how much would it be necessary to reduce the £350K saving by to facilitate all the existing libraries continuing to function under their current arrangements, given that some of the £350K savings are against central costs and not individual libraries?
Summary – How much would it cost to keep the libraries open?
£236,000
Cllr George Brown, the Cabinet member responsible, provided the answer, which our live notes say that the cost would be £236,000.
His full answer (supplied by Cllr Brown) was …
The proposed savings target assumed a basic provision of hours to be as set out in Option B – 50 hours for Newport, 42 hours for Ryde, 21 hours for Bembridge, Cowes, East Cowes, Freshwater, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor, with 10 hours for Brighstone and Niton. To bring these back to the current arrangements would cost a further £236,000. This would therefore reduce savings from £350,000 to £114,000 in 2011/12.
£114k still saved
Cllr Brown explained that even if the libraries stayed open with the number of hours they currently do, there would still be a saving of £114,000, by streamlining central services.
“It’s only 0.2% of the Council’s total budget”
VentnorBlog spoke to Cllr Blezzard this morning about it, “£236k only amounts to 0.2% of the Council’s total budget,” he told us, continuing, “For the amount your talking about and the benefit it would bring – I think they should find that money and keep the service as it has been. If they did keep the libraries open as they are, there would be a lot of good will shown towards them.”
Cllr Blezzard followed this up with another question, which was,
If Lib Dem controlled Portsmouth – with no parish councils to bail it out, and a Band D Council Tax £140 lower than the Isle of Wight – can, far from closing libraries, afford to open a new one, how is it that you are reducing opening hours and still planning closures?
Cllr Brown said that he would provide a reply in a letter.
