There is much concern in Derby over the closing of the 10 Community Managed Libraries. The budget for 2023/24 will remove all of the the funding. An unapproved Expression of interest activity was launched a few weeks ago which ended recently on 3rd February 2023 – its practical objective unclear.

The last official update on Community Managed Libraries was presented to the Cabinet on 16 November 2022. However, many of the numbers had been calculated incorrectly, and some were based on 6 year old data.

Incorrect Cost ranges

Para 4.4 of the report presented a series of cost ranges with the most expensive library costing nearly £150 per visit. The calculation used annual costs but only visit numbers for 3 months – not 12 months! The rates are wrong by a factor of 4.

This error was confirmed in FOI 498593769.

A more comprehensive analysis ( below) results in some unsurprising conclusions:

• The greater the number of opening hours, the lower the cost/visit
• Opening outside of normal office hours results in a lower cost/visit.

Total Cost of Community Managed Libraries

The report confirmed that the running costs of CML’s through Direct Help and Advice (DHA) would be £314k pa. By comparison, if managed by Derby City Council (DCC), it would, apparently, cost £562k.

The report did not state that the 2023/24 DCC costs used old data from 2017/18 which was escalated by average annual inflation ( ref FOI). There had been no analysis of whether that data was relevant in 2023 given the Council’s restructuring of Library Services.

What is being cut and what is left?

The 2023/24 Budget document shows a saving from libraries of just £162k – the actual costs paid to DHA for 22/23 will be £314k ( the year before was £277k)

There are other related costs that remain unaffected.

It is worth noting that it costs £764k to run 14 libraries and a similar amount (£746k) in “Headquarters” costs – of which £513k are staff costs. These staff costs have remained constant for 5 years (from before the CMLs were introduced).

The question was asked by FOI as to what incremental Headquarters costs were incurred to support the CMLs, and therefore what costs would be saved if there were no CMLs. This question was rejected on the basis that it would take too long to establish the answer – the answer should be readily available.

Comment

Council Officers should ensure that the basic maths in Cabinet papers is correct. It should state where critical assumptions have been made that underpin assertions. The package of numbers should make sense.

For the sake of saving £162k from next year’s Budget ( representing 0.06% of the Councils’s net total) the City will lose the facility for 74,000 visits to the 10 CMLs. That’s a cost of just over £2 per visit. A simple expansion of the opening hours such that all CMLs are open “out of working hours” would signficantly increase the visitor numbers and make the service even more value for money.

Over the last 4 /5 years there has been no noticeable reduction in the monolithic £746k Central Library Headquarter costs. Has anyone actually investigated what this is being been spent on, and assessed the extent to which it is contributing to the public service….and the opportunity for savings?

The Council does not understand how to provide a much needed Library service. It doesn’t understand the true costs, and where the wasted overheads are, and how to make it more efficient beyond wielding an ill-considered blunt instrument to cut the service.

Publishing erroneous, and old data and a half-hearted, pointless exercise to gain initial “expressions of interest” will not help to ensure a progressive approach to maintaining the popular Library service.

Post Script

I’m sure the Council’s legal team will clarify how an erroneous Cabinet report gets corrected so it does not continue to mislead Councillors, and the public, for any longer than is necessary.

LINK to all previous Library Articles