Budleigh Salterton residents have expressed alarm at Devon County Council’s (DCC’s) plans to reduce opening hours at the local public library.
The proposal is part of a wider 12-week consultation process by the local authority, which could see opening hours across Devon’s 50 libraries cut from just over 1,294 hours to about 914 hours a week – representing almost a 30 per cent reduction.
DCC is also proposing to increase its reliance on volunteers for day-to-day services, pointing out that in the past year there have already been “temporary reductions” to staffed opening hours at various locations due to financial constraints.
Justifying the changes, the local authority said that "physical book borrowing" had also declined since the Covid pandemic and that more people were accessing e-books, audiobooks and online newspapers.
If the proposals are introduced, Budleigh Salterton’s library will close on Thursdays and Fridays and see reduced opening hours on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Geoff Woodman, chair of the Friends of Budleigh Salterton Library, is strongly opposed to the move, saying it will have a detrimental impact on both the local community and library staff.
He said: “It looks like Budleigh has been particularly picked on. We have a very vibrant library and, of course, Budleigh is the home of the literary festival."
As part of the consultation process, an online survey is asking users to rate library services and whether they feel that current opening hours meet their needs.
Mr Woodman said many library supporters had already expressed their opposition to the proposal through the survey.
“My wife and I have distributed well over 300 consultation documents, and we've sent 200 hard copies off to DCC. There are also countless people who've done it online, so I would say we have overwhelming support,” he said.
“We've just been down the high street, and every shop in Budleigh Salterton is 100 per cent behind us.”
Library user Ernest Caro dismissed the suggestion that libraries were struggling, saying Budleigh’s library was always full when he visited.
“If they can get away with reducing opening hours, there’ll be more next time. They’re offering volunteers, but I don’t see how libraries can be run by volunteers,” he told the paper.
According to sources, nearly 50,000 people visited Budleigh Salterton Library last year, a figure many local people say demonstrates its role as a community hub.
Novelist Graham Hurley, who is a patron of the library, described the cuts as “savage”, adding that it would become “a great deal harder” to borrow a book as a result.
In a letter to the paper, he said: “Libraries, as all librarians know, offer way more than books. They are places of safety, of warmth, of the familiarity of recognised faces, as well as the kinship of thousands of reads.
"In a society increasingly atomised, that matters a great deal because that kind of provision – should you need it – is very hard to come by.
“It is, dare I say, death by a thousand cuts, and by the time we get round to a proper post-mortem it will be far, far too late. We need to think this thing through, and rescue libraries from the local authority wrecking ball before books, and the kinship that goes with them, become a quaint reminder of the way we used to be: a great deal more aware, and infinitely more humane.”
A public meeting, attended by local councillors, will take place at Budleigh Salterton Public Hall to discuss the issue on January 23 at 12.30pm.
There is more information on the proposals and the online survey on Devon County Council’s website: https://devonlibraries.commonplace.is/
To view the proposed new opening hours at libraries in East Devon, click here.
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