Mirfield library group 'over the moon' as council makes U-turn
The Friends of Mirfield Library are “over the moon” now that unpopular plans for eight Kirklees libraries have been scrapped.
Earlier in the year, Kirklees Council announced it was looking to make eight of the borough’s 24 libraries - Honley, Meltham, Marsden, Kirkheaton, Skelmanthorpe, Denby Dale, Mirfield and Shepley - community-managed and run by volunteers, in a bid to save cash. February saw Cabinet agree to “establish the feasibility” of this new operating model.
Since being announced, the plans were met with a great deal of backlash from communities across the borough, not least in Mirfield, where volunteers are heavily involved in the running of the library through a ‘Friends of’ group.
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Chair of the group, Cynthia Collinson, has been vocal against the plans throughout the process, fearing that volunteers did not have the expertise to run a library the size of Mirfield’s, especially in the absence of council staff and funding.
As a result, a petition was launched, racking up over 3,000 signatures, with the council ultimately abandoning its plans due to the general ‘overwhelming’ public response in opposition.
Now, the local authority has announced a new approach and is looking to reduce the number of its staff working across the entire library network, rather than removing them from the eight libraries completely.
We caught up with Chair of the Friends of Mirfield Library group, Cynthia Collinson, who described the group as “over the moon” and “absolutely delighted”, upon learning of the news. She continued: “I was just absolutely thrilled.
“It was what we were hoping for really - to be taken out of the community-managed group and put in the community-supported. We feel like we have got our library back. We were in limbo but we now feel we can make plans for the future.”
Cynthia acknowledged that challenges could still lie ahead when it comes to staffing and hours and spoke of the importance of training up volunteers so they can man the library when council staff are not present.
She continued: “It [the decision] means we’ve got a base from which to work to continue with all of our activities and functions. As I’ve said, we’ve still got challenges but we’re very enthusiastic and will continue doing the best we can for the future of Mirfield Library.”
Commenting on how the council has handled the matter, she said: “I do think they’ve listened to us…We’ll probably never know whether they took notice of our petition with over 3,000 signatures. Was it our plea to the new leader of the council? Was it the consultation feedback?
“Whatever it was, we can only say thank you to Kirklees Council for listening to our concerns and for taking this action.” As a final note, Cynthia wanted to encourage Mirfield residents to come down to their local library and use the facilities.
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