Eleventh-hour budget bid to save Dudley libraries from cuts
A crunch Dudley Council meeting will see an eleventh hour bid to remove Dudley libraries from possible cuts and closures.
Ahead of a vote at full council on March 4 to set the budget for the 2024/25 financial year, Liberal Democrat councillor Ryan Priest has submitted an amendment demanding a change of plan.
He says a total review of council services aimed at finding millions of savings should not include libraries.
Councillor Priest, who represents Cradley and Wollescote, said: “It is shameful that less than 12 months after campaigners forced the administration into a U-turn, that cuts to library services is back on the agenda
“Libraries are a vital part of the history and social fabric of our borough. Cradley Library was a huge part of my childhood as I am sure it and many others are in other people’s lives today.”
Councillor Priest is the lone Lib Dem on the 72-seat council and will need support from every other political group for his amendment to succeed.
He added: “Protecting library services should not be a hot political issue. Members of all sides joined the protests last year, now it’s time for members of all sides to put their vote where their mouth is.”
Proposed cuts of £1.5m to libraries were scrapped in June 2023 after protests.
Speaking at the time, council leader Patrick Harley, denied the change of plan was a U-turn claiming the authorities’ financial position had improved.
Dudley currently operates 13 libraries plus other facilities including the borough archives and local history service.
The council outsourced library services to the social enterprise Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) in 2017.
GLL runs more than 100 libraries in Bromley, Dudley, Greenwich, Lincolnshire and Wandsworth; the Dudley contract ends in 2024.
In the report for this year’s budget meeting the council’s director of finance forecast’s the borough’s library service will cost £4.2m in the current financial year.
In a survey carried out by the council asking people to rank services in overall importance, out of 1,376 responses, libraries finished eleventh out of 17 options with refuse collection and recycling top while tourism and heritage was last.
