THE SWIFT decision to downsize Dunoon Library was discussed at length during this week’s Dunoon Community Council meeting, where liveArgyll management answered a barrage of questions from members of the public and community councillors.
On Monday evening within the now vacated library room in the Queen’s Hall liveArgyll’s chief officer Kevin Anderson and service and support manager Paul Ashworth gave a comprehensive presentation explaining why the facility had been significantly reduced in size.
As with most reasons for downsizing the contributing factor lay with expense and financial prudence and although at times frustrations were vented it was clear that liveArgyll had no other option but to move the library to a smaller location.
Its understood the space previously occupied by Dunoon Library, a sizeable room on the first floor of the Queen’s Hall will now be repurposed and used as a studio, events and conferencing space.
Mr Anderson speaking at the DCC meeting explained: “Wewerekeentocomealong tonight to give some info on the library move and dispel some misinformation about it too. Live Argyll is a charity and partly funded by Argyll and Bute Council however the majority of our funding comes from self generated income. We have a cost base of approximately £7.5M for the financial year 25/26 and that means in terms of the split the council gives us £3.2M and we are required to generate the remaining balance, How we generate that is through a mixture of different services the significant majority comes from leisure, room hires, events and community letting of other facilities like football pitches etc.”
“The financial position this year is we have a £211,000 deficit. So essentially the cost of our services is £211,000 more than our anticipated income, if all our services were to remain the same. The primary factor in relation to that deficit is national
insurance changes the UK Government has imposed, which means we have to find an additional £155,000 before we do anything.”
Mr Anderson added: “So how do we do that? Essentially what we have to do is make space pay and that istheharshreality.Inorderto do this our board agreed an efficiency plan which looked at all of our assets, leisure centres, libraries and halls and how we can maximise their income to maintain services. We’re not talking about income for profit, or income for shareholders, we’re talking about raising enough money to ensure the sustainability and longevity of services.”
Approximately £2.2M worth of liveArgyll services across the region are free at the point of delivery which include libraries. Mr Anderson went on to explain that he personally frequently visited Dunoon Library with his son but it was a facility which was unfortunately underused.
He explained: “The usage figures for the last three months was approximately 550 users, 25 users a day. In terms of the book stock 100% will remain available, the book stock which has been removed, (termed ‘grubby of criticism, community councillor Abigail Apps said: “The whole point of Book Bug is to introduce kids to books in a children’s library where kids would be surrounded by books, sit and choose a book and spend time around books. My understanding is that it will now take place next to the soft play which means they’ll be playing rather than reading.”
LiveArgyll management explained that although Book Bug sessions would take place next to the soft play area the books would be located within the ‘party room’ there in a separate space ,which would fit with a ‘learning, reading and playing agenda.’
As the conversation progressed this newspaper asked both Argyll and Bute councillors present, Ross Moreland and Daniel Hampsey, why the local authority hadn’t moved the needle on liveArgyll’s funding over the last few years, taking into account recent added financial pressures such as rising maintenance and energy costs, the National Insurance changes and the recent expensive storm damage to Helensburgh’s leisure centre.
The response was that liveArgyll’s funding was due to be cut around £300,000 during this year’s budget, a move which both councillors Moreland and Hampsey had rejected, but if funding was increased it would more than likely lead to a further slight rise in council tax.
The overriding message from liveArgyll was that facing a multitude of financial pressures, many of which are crucifying similar services across the UK, management had no other option but to ‘make space pay’ and on this particular occasion Dunoon Library was one such space.
The messaging from liveArgyll management was clear, currently the town still has a library, albeit a lot smaller than before, but in this current climate of cost cutting, down sizing and parsimony we still have books which can be borrowed for free and our kids can still find comfort in the safe space a library affords.
The next few months and years are crucial for leisure services across Argyll and Bute as financial pressures grow and funding remains largely stagnant.
stock’), is dead book stock and is obsolete and accounts for 28 per cent, books which have not been borrowed over the last two to 10 years. The harsh reality is we cannot afford space to display books.”
Mr Anderson and Mr Ashworth then answered a wide range of questions both from community councillors and members of the public. In what has to have been the single longest presentation segment of recent DCC meetings.
One concern was raised by community councillor David Clough who openly criticised the way in which liveArgyll had announced the library downsizing.
He said: “I’d like to think that in the future, on decisions that impact on the community, there is proper consultation and that decisions aren’t made at the last minute about funding because this didn’t just come out of the blue this would have been known about weeks before by people in the finance department. It would have been discussed weeks before the announcement of the move. I think both the council and liveArgyll are at fault for that.”
This kickstarted a lengthy period of questions covering a wide range of topics including the accessibility of mothers with prams to the new children’s library room at the top of the stairs on the ground floor, wheelchair accessibility to that level of the library as the lift in the Queen’s Hall is currently out of order and it was also revealed that the popular Book Bug sessions will now take place on the top floor of the hall where the soft play area is located.
This particular revelation brought a significant amount of criticism, community councillor Abigail Apps said: “The whole point of Book Bug is to introduce kids to books in a children’s library where kids would be surrounded by books, sit and choose a book and spend time around books. My understanding is that it will now take place next to the soft play which means they’ll be playing rather than reading.”
LiveArgyll management explained that although Book Bug sessions would take place next to the soft play area the books would be located within the ‘party room’ there in a separate space ,which would fit with a ‘learning, reading and playing agenda.’
As the conversation progressed this newspaper asked both Argyll and Bute councillors present, Ross Moreland and Daniel Hampsey, why the local authority hadn’t moved the needle on liveArgyll’s funding over the last few years, taking into account recent added financial pressures such as rising maintenance and energy costs, the National Insurance changes and the recent expensive storm damage to Helensburgh’s leisure centre.
The response was that liveArgyll’s funding was due to be cut around £300,000 during this year’s budget, a move which both councillors Moreland and Hampsey had rejected, but if funding was increased it would more than likely lead to a further slight rise in council tax.
The overriding message from liveArgyll was that facing a multitude of financial pressures, many of which are crucifying similar services across the UK, management had no other option but to ‘make space pay’ and on this particular occasion Dunoon Library was one such space.
The messaging from liveArgyll management was clear, currently the town still has a library, albeit a lot smaller than before, but in this current climate of cost cutting, down sizing and parsimony we still have books which can be borrowed for free and our kids can still find comfort in the safe space a library affords.
The next few months and years are crucial for leisure services across Argyll and Bute as financial pressures grow and funding remains largely stagnant.
