Nine libraries across Newcastle are set to have their hours slashed as part of a £30m cuts programme if plans are approved.

Newcastle City Council has said Gosforth Library, East End Library and Centre Customer Outer West Library and Centre Customer Service Centre and West End Library and Centre Customer Service Centre could have their hours more than halved to 23 hours a week. All of the venues are currently open for at least 54 hours a week.

Elsewhere, Fenham Library could have its hours cut to 18.5 hours per week, from 41.5 hours, Kenton Library could go from 51.5 hours to 23 hours, Newburn Library from 35.75 hours to 18.5 hours, Walker Library cut from 43 hours to 23 hours, and City Library could see hours cut from 69 hours to 49 hours.

Newcastle Civic Centre’s Customer Service Centre could see its opening hours cut from 40 hours to 37.5 hours a week.

The proposals are part of a plan to save £1m from the cost of running libraries and customer service centres but the council has said by cutting opening hours so savagely they have managed to avoid any full closures.

Councllor David Stockdale, cabinet member for communities and facilities, said: “The huge cuts to Newcastle City Council’s budget forced on us by Government spending reductions and rising costs means we have to find ways of making savings across our library and customer service network, as we do across the entire council.

“Despite the horrendous budget savings we have to meet, I have been clear that we will not close any of our customer service centres or libraries.

“Reducing opening hours, although disappointing, is the only way we have been able to meet the savings required and save our customer service centres and libraries from closure.

“Our libraries and customer service centres are vital resources and an important statement of what we stand for as a city.”

In 2012 the council came under fire after proposals to close ten of its 18 libraries were put forward.

Following a strong show of support all were saved through various new management operations which saw voluntary and community groups step forward to save all venues except Moorside Library, which closed in June 2013.

Newcastle College stepped in to save High Heaton library which was under-threat, while community groups came forward to run Jesmond, Blakelaw and Fawdon .

Coun Stockdale added: “I hope residents will support the decision to save all of our customer service centres and libraries from closure by reducing opening hours.”

Three meetings are set to take place next week to discuss the proposals as part of an ongoing consultation.

On Monday, a meeting takes place at West End Customer Service Centre and Library, on Tuesday a meeting takes place in Bewick Hall, in City Library, and on Thursday a meeting takes place in Gosforth Library - all meetings start at 6.30pm.

Full details of proposed cuts to library opening times:

  • Gosforth Library / 60.5 hours reduced to 23 hours
  • East End Library and Centre Customer Service Centre / 58 hours reduced to 23 hours
  • Outer West Library and Centre Customer Service Centre / 54 hours reduced to 23 hours
  • West End Library and Centre Customer Service Centre / 54 hours reduced to 23 hours
  • Fenham Library / 41.5 hours reduced to 18.5 hours
  • Kenton Library / 51.5 hours reduced to 23 hours
  • Newburn Library / 35.75 hours reduced to 18.5 hours
  • Walker Library / 43 hours reduced to 23 hours
  • City Library / 69 hours reduced to 49 hours
  • Newcastle Civic Centre Customer Service Centre / 40 hours reduced to 37.5 hours
poll loading

Do you still use libraries?
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/libraries-newcastle-could-opening-times-10729841
www.chroniclelive.co.uk
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-09
135658
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:CQLG2BTX7DQCX5325UY3HY7ONSMWZOKA
<urn:uuid:39f0ae29-86d2-4fa2-af17-1226d6321a46>
2017-02-23T08:23:20Z
23.50.225.18
sha1:FV4SW7D35PK3YBSG3XEY6INZSPO4E3W2
<urn:uuid:eb99d1fb-fba6-4321-b155-9147d66c0877>
http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/libraries-newcastle-could-opening-times-10729841
response
<urn:uuid:ebcbcc5a-21b3-48c6-a947-f3db38cea007>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-171-10-108.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-09
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for February 2017
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf