The Council’s Libraries Strategy has run aground! Despite overly positive rhetoric from Council Officers about how well the Libraries project is doing, the evidence does not bear this out at all. At […]
The new Conservative administration seems to be supporting and continuing the Library strategy with the imminent “transfer” of Allestree library. This is despite the evidence on the ground being that it is […]
The previous Labour Council’s rhetoric was that Libraries had to be reviewed and made ‘community managed’ due to the impact of Central Government cuts. They had no choice?! In the 12 July […]
Today, the ribbon was cut by the Deputy Mayor, Frank Harwood, at the formal opening of the first Community Managed Library, in Sinfin. The deal was formally signed by Derby City Council, […]
If you go into Derby’s first Community Managed Library in Sinfin, you won’t be served by Direct Help and Advice’s (DHA) volunteer staff, but by paid, Derby City Council, library managers. One […]
Derby City Council operates a very strict Data Protection policy in its libraries; it stipulates that volunteers have no access to the Library Management system. They are unable to view any personal […]
The Council’s strategy to offload 10 libraries to Direct Help and Advice (DHA) by the end of 2018, is now in progress with the first library, Sinfin, being handed over in Mid-May […]
The popular belief is that the Council is closing the Central Library to save money for the Council Tax payer; a necessity driven by funding cuts from Central Government. However, it will […]
The Council’s policy, with respect to the 10 non-statutory libraries, was to encourage volunteer led community groups to run them; so-called Community Managed Libraries (CMLs- as defined by Locality). No such groups […]
At a Library briefing this morning, Claire Davenport, Director of Leisure and Culture for Derby City Council provided answers to questions from Derby News that undermined the urgency and timing of the publicised […]
On September 4th, the Council released detailed packs of information to help any prospective group, planning to volunteer to run a library, to understand its potential costs. On closer examination, it is […]
The original racy programme to push through the conversions of 10 libraries into Community Managed Libraries before the end of 2017 is failing already. Is the public seeing through this proposal? Is […]
For legal reasons, Councillors have to tread very carefully in how they get involved in the proposals to convert 10 Council run libraries into Community managed Libraries. Previous articles and background to […]
The Libraries Proposal to create Community Managed Libraries (CMLs) contains some important small print that all Volunteer groups should be aware of before they sign up. The default position is that each […]
The business plan assumes that all existing Libraries staff will be made redundant across the 10 locations. These are: Allenton, Allestree, Blagreaves, Chaddesden, Chellaston, Derwent, Sinfin, Mackworth, Oakwood, Spondon The numbers of […]
Any suggestion that this evening’s Executive Scrutiny Board was going to be anything other than a charade, that wasted public time and money, was completely dismissed quite early in this pointless 2.5 […]
The final proposal on the Library strategy, Option B+, states that it will save Derby City Council £648,000 per year, by converting 10 of the 15 libraries into Community ( Volunteer) managed […]
Last Wednesday’s Full Council meeting was dedicated to a debate over the Labour Group’s proposed budget for 2017/18 – 2019/2020. Within that plan is the much publicised and discussed idea to change […]
The consultation on the re-structuring of the City’s libraries closes today. The Council’s preferred Option (B) does not stand up to much financial scrutiny…there is a questionable £400k gap. The solution is […]
