![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/4_Central-library.jpg\")
Bristol Central Library<\/p>\nCity councillors clashed over service’s future Bristol Central Library<\/p>\n
A row broke out after opposition Labour tried in vain to get Green-led Bristol City Council<\/a> to commit to keeping all libraries open.<\/p>\n It came as the public health and communities committee set up a cross-party taskforce to redesign the service and make it fit for the future amid a long-term cash crisis.<\/p>\n Labour<\/a> tabled an amendment to the proposed working group\u2019s remit<\/a> to say permanently shutting any of the 26 branches, plus a community-run access point in Lockleaze, should be off the table and not supported by the committee.<\/p>\n But the Greens, Lib Dems<\/a> and Conservatives<\/a> voted it down by 6-3 after hearing it would predetermine the taskforce\u2019s recommendations when it reports back in November and deter residents from taking part in the process because it cut the options available.<\/p>\n Council leaders dropped plans to more than halve the funding<\/a> for libraries from \u00a34.7million to \u00a32.3million a year ahead of the annual budget in February, so that a working group could be formed to review the service without the pressure of cuts and imminent closures.<\/p>\n Branches were previously threatened with the axe in 2018 and 2022 under the previous Labour administration, which backtracked on both occasions following huge public opposition.<\/p>\n Cllr Tom Blenkinsop (Labour, Avonmouth<\/a> & Lawrence Weston) told the committee: \u201cOne of the things that would serve the most deprived areas of Bristol least is if their libraries were permanently closed.\u201d<\/p>\n Tabling the amendment, Cllr Lisa Durston (Labour, Filwood) said: \u201cWe want to be really clear that we do not support the closure of any libraries.\u201d<\/p>\n She said if the taskforce\u2019s rules made clear from the outset that considering shutting branches was not an option, it would give residents who were concerned about closures clarity on its aims and scope.<\/p>\n But committee chairman Cllr Stephen Williams (Lib Dem, Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze) said the working group was being set up to design a new four- or five-year library strategy for what councillors wanted the service to look like.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely not a decision-making forum for any closures or budget reductions.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will come after that group has reported back to this committee in November.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will be the point where officers draw up how they think the recommendations could be implemented and it will be at that point where we may or may not have some difficult decisions to make.<\/p>\n \u201cThis task-and-finish group is not to consider the future of the library buildings, it is simply to design what we think a modern, fit-for-purpose library service should be.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that while the line in Labour\u2019s amendment about closures of physical buildings being outside the taskforce\u2019s remit was factually correct, another \u2013 that shutting branches was not supported by the committee \u2013 prejudged what it could recommend.<\/p>\n Cllr Williams said: \u201cWe are all agreed that the scope of this group is not to look at any sort of hit list, all of us agree that, but the second part of that sentence is a severe curtailment of the free thinking that the group might need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Bristol City Council director of management of place Patsy Mellor said: \u201cThis is an opportunity for a clean slate for some really good thinking from focus groups and members to drive a new service that people are proud of and can access.<\/p>\n \u201cThe residents will be really concerned if we said we were setting up a task-and-finish group to develop a new strategy but that the strategy is already predetermined because we\u2019ve already said we\u2019re keeping 26 libraries, which means they are still going to be closed more than they\u2019re open.<\/p>\n \u201cThat severely restricts residents\u2019 input who might want to do something different.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have communities running services within libraries, and to start this process with the predetermination that we\u2019re not going to change anything, that we\u2019re going to stay shut more than we\u2019re open, I think residents will lose faith in their ability to come forward with really transformative ideas and make any sort of change.<\/p>\n \u201cResidents will be really disappointed if we curtailed the scope of the task-and-finish group.\u201d<\/p>\n Cllr Patrick McAllister (Green, Hotwells & Harbourside) said: \u201cWe all know something does need to happen with the library service with the present funding issues across the whole council.<\/p>\n \u201cLibraries aren\u2019t immune to those and the previous administration would salami-slice them, in effect, to keep everything open.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a zombie library service.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re technically still open but a lot of them aren\u2019t staffed, hours are limited, several are open three days a week, often only during working hours.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople learn, sadly, that they can\u2019t rely on their library service because it\u2019s not open when they need it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat further drives down demand and use \u2013 it\u2019s a vicious circle.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the city\u2019s universities could be asked to sponsor parts of the service because students benefited from them.<\/p>\n Cllr Blenkinsop said: \u201cSponsorship by the universities is a good point and there might be other sponsorships \u2013 I\u2019m thinking the port for Avonmouth.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m open to having discussions around this.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m not open to is taking valuable community assets away from communities that have already had far too much taken away from them.\u201d<\/p>\n Referring to Labour\u2019s amendment, Cllr Ed Fraser (Green, Eastville) said: \u201cI think this has been done to create some kind of dividing line in the media, maybe it\u2019s a precursor to some kind of press release or a petition.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we should be dignifying this with further discussion, we should be moving to the vote, and I\u2019ll be voting against this proposal because it\u2019s against the spirit of task-and-finish groups to try to pigeonhole their ability to discuss issues in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n The committee voted along party lines to set up the group by 6-3.<\/p>\n Try BristolLive Premium for FREE without intrusive ads and brilliant new features<\/p>\n No intrusive adverts, pop-ups or distractions! Just our brilliant content presented in the best way possible.<\/p>\n Get your free one-month trial by visiting the ‘Premium’ tab on the BristolLive app now (auto renews annually at \u00a319.99).<\/p>\n If you haven’t got it already, get started by downloading our app here on iPhone<\/a> or here on Android<\/a>. If you already have the app but can’t see the ‘Premium’ section, you’ll need to check for the latest update. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City councillors clashed over service’s future Bristol Central Library A row broke out after opposition Labour tried in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[15066,381,3893,748,527,12894,2266,393,4884,14144,20078,528,11518,20075,285,16,15,11386],"class_list":{"0":"post-95213","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-avonmouth","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-bristol-city-council","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-conservative-party","13":"tag-eastville","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-england","16":"tag-great-britain","17":"tag-green-party","18":"tag-henleaze","19":"tag-labour-party","20":"tag-liberal-democrats","21":"tag-lockleaze","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-westbury-on-trym"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114494645448087997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}