Campaigners say Nottingham City Council is being "disrespectful" after a final decision on saving three libraries was pushed back by a month. The authority first revealed at the start of the year that it was planning to close three libraries to save £233,000.
But a "restructure of frontline services" means £154,000 has already been saved to date and that shutting the three libraries would now only save £79,000. Thousands of members of the public also opposed the closure of the Basford, Aspley and Radford-Lenton libraries during a consultation.
A closed meeting in November then saw Labour councillors reportedly voting to save the three libraries. But this decision is yet to be officially confirmed by Nottingham City Council's executive board.
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The issue was due to be discussed at the final executive board meeting of the year on Tuesday (December 20), after it was originally due for debate at the board's November meeting. But Nottingham City Council says that it will not be discussed until the board's meeting on January 17.
Campaigners who have been fighting the closure of the libraries gathered outside Loxley House, Nottingham City Council's headquarters, to protest against the delayed decision. Des Conway, one of the campaigners, said: "It would have been good both for the staff at these libraries and for the users to have had a firm decision before Christmas.
"The issue has been that when the options for the future of these libraries were unveiled, business as usual was not one of those options. But keeping the libraries as they are won't cost any extra money and so we're hoping that this delay is the council trying to work out how to present its final decision.
"Whatever they decide will ultimately be a significant climb down from the initial plans. We have been campaigning on this for so long now that I suppose we can wait until January for that final decision."
But other campaigners expressed anger when Councillors Rebecca Langton and Pavlos Kotsonis came outside to meet them before Tuesday's executive board meeting, December 20. One protestor told them they were being "disrespectful" by pushing back the decision.
Sian Steans told the councillors that staff at the libraries now had "uncertainty hanging over them" and that there was "distrust" at the way the issue had been handled. Councillor Kotsonis, the portfolio holder for leisure, culture and planning at Nottingham City Council, said councils had to set balanced budgets under local government laws, adding: "I don't make the laws, but they are there."
A Nottingham City Council spokesperson said: "We had planned to take a report on the Libraries Transformation proposals to November's Executive Board for a final decision. This is an important decision which needs to take account of all the feedback we received during the consultation that we undertook earlier this year.
"It is essential that a final report is as comprehensive as possible to allow good decision making to take place. We are still working on preparing the full range of options for the Executive Board to consider. It is currently planned to go to the meeting of the Executive Board taking place on January 17."
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