Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Turning house music into homes: The James Hype special edition is out!
BUY magazine
Books

Essex libraries saved from the axe – but battle to keep them staffed goes on

Grassroots campaign stops council closing 25 libraries but await assurances over staffing fears

libraries credit robin byles

Grassroots campaigners Save Our Libraries Essex (SOLE) may well be celebrating after stopping 25 libraries from being axed – but they have vowed to “keep the pressure on” to ensure they remain fully staffed.

Essex County Council leader David Finch confirmed the changes at the local authority’s full council meeting, bowing to public pressure to say that no library will be closed in the next five years.

This follows 21,000 responses, more than 1,000 letters and 50 petitions – including one that had more than 11,000 signatures – which were sent to the council during a consultation on the closures between last November and January. They told the local authority how libraries were about more than just books – pointing to the computer access, educational value and space to meet people in the community.

The final libraries strategy will be approved at the council’s cabinet meeting on July 23 and will seek to “develop an investment plan to improve libraries” and “work with community groups to set up community-run libraries”.

Cllr Susan Barker, Essex County Council’s cabinet member for customer, communities, culture and corporate, said: “Our future libraries strategy has changed drastically due to what the people of Essex told us. I am delighted that the consultation ignited such passion for keeping the service alive.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

“We assured everyone that their feedback would be taken into account, and it has – all our libraries now have a future.

“This is a new, exciting chapter for libraries in Essex. It will be a service fit for the 21st century that is genuinely in the hands of communities and local users, who can help mould it to what they want and need.”

However, while Essex’s libraries may not go the same way as the 800-plus libraries that have shut their doors since 2010, campaigners are still wary of the lack of commitment to how the existing libraries will be staffed.

SOLE, whose campaign was backed by celebrities David Walliams, Michael Rosen, Billy Bragg, Jacqueline Wilson and more, have voiced concerns that libraries will end up being run by volunteers instead of professional staff.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

“We have always argued that every single library should stay open, so it is a testament to the power of our grassroots campaign that ECC has finally conceded this point,” a SOLE spokesperson said. “It is the people of Essex who deserve the credit for forcing this climbdown.

“However, we are yet to receive any assurances that all libraries will retain their professional staff, as well as buildings, stock, IT resources, and other essentials. Therefore, we won’t be celebrating until we know that these damaging plans for volunteer or so-called ‘community-run’ services are off the table, and we’ll be keeping up the pressure until then.”

Now the group are running an alternative consultation to further assess public opinions on Essex’s libraries service. That can be reached here.

Image: Robin Byles

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

View all
The extraordinary story of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to hold a pilot's licence
History

The extraordinary story of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to hold a pilot's licence

Top 5 children’s books written in Scots, chosen by by author and translator Ashley Douglas 
Books

Top 5 children’s books written in Scots, chosen by by author and translator Ashley Douglas 

Small Rain by Garth Greenwell review – mortal reflections from a hospital bed
Books

Small Rain by Garth Greenwell review – mortal reflections from a hospital bed

Top 5 historical novels, chosen by best-selling author Lana Kortchik
Books

Top 5 historical novels, chosen by best-selling author Lana Kortchik

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know