Campaigners say they are "ecstatic" at the news Labour councillors pledged to keep three at-threat Nottingham libraries open. It comes after the Labour-run Nottingham City Council proposed to close Basford, Aspley and the Radford-Lenton libraries in order to cut costs.
Labour Group councillors held a meeting at Loxley House on Monday (November 7) to discuss the future of the libraries. In a close vote of 21 to 19, the councillors voted to keep all three libraries open, giving campaigners who have been fighting to save the libraries from closure hope they may remain in operation.
A firm decision is still to be made by the city council's executive board, however, but members of the Save Nottingham Libraries group, who have been campaigning for nine months, have expressed their relief at the news.
Read more: Hope as Labour Group say they want to keep at-threat Nottingham libraries open
Activist Des Conway said: "We are absolutely ecstatic. We started the campaign in February at Loxley House so we have in a sense come full circle. We have done so many different things in the campaign, we have had authors and poets draw together a collection of poems and stories about libraries.
"We have attended every single full council meeting and submitted citizen questions. We have attended all the consultation meetings, the ones on Zoom and the ones at the three libraries. We also set up a crowdfunded advert in the last couple of weeks.
"I think it was the intervention of our campaign that basically got a massive turn out of people filling in the consultation [launched by the council to invite public discussion over the proposal]. I think the final tally was in the 3,000s of people and an overwhelming number of those were to keep the libraries open."
It was initially understood the savings from closing Basford, Aspley and the Radford-Lenton libraries would total £233,000, to be phased over three years between 2021 and 2024. However, the phasing has already provided a saving of £154,000 to date, which has been achieved by a "restructure of frontline services". Shutting the three sites would only save the remaining £79,000.
The 64-year-old Mr Conway from Sherwood added: "The thought that the Labour council might take those facilities away is an absolute disgrace. We have persuaded enough of them now to come on side and do the right thing, which they have done.
"I think the whole group is absolutely delighted. Wherever the council turned up, we were always there with our placards, petitions and we basically put them under the spotlight to make sure they didn't close these fantastic facilities that are in working class areas.
"Obviously that [the decision] needs to be confirmed but we think it will be because we know from our own experience that once it has gone through the Labour Group, it is on the nod from the wider council. Hopefully that will be the situation."
In recent weeks, libraries across the country have started to be used as warm rooms to help with the cost of living crisis. Campaigners from Save Nottingham Libraries have called for the three threatened libraries to be used this way and believe it could have been a key reason in the decision.
Mr Conway, who is a retired public health worker, added: "Obviously Martin Lewis, the most famous person in this whole cost of living situation, has already tweeted about the need for libraries to become warm spaces where folks can go during the day so they don't have to turn their heating on. So we think that was an additional factor that influenced the councillors for sure."
In July, Nottingham City Council proposed five possible options to keep the libraries open. It included a volunteer-led system, which Save Nottingham Libraries condemned.
"We were quite clear from the start that we were opposed to community-run libraries," said Mr Conway. "We see the community being involved in the libraries but not running the libraries. We did not want a two-tier service developing where on the one hand you get the Nottingham City Council libraries and then these three other libraries that had a different model.
"We thought that would be very divisive and not a way forward." Mr Conway added: "It has been a long, hard slog. We will probably throw a party at some point but we are a bit cautious as we have not had anything official from the city council."
A Nottingham City Council spokesman said: “Councils are not able to comment on discussions at political meetings. We will be able to say more once any proposals have been formally put forward by the authority to the relevant committee for decision.”
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