Self service libraries in North Somerset 'to cut costs'

Reducing staffed library opening hours and sharing buildings in North Somerset will save £250,000 per year, the council has said.

Under the plan, five libraries will introduce self service operation and one will be run by a parish council.

The equivalent of 11 jobs will be lost while some sites will also move and merge with children's centres, meaning a loss of six full time roles.

A meeting of North Somerset Council is expected to approve the idea later.

If agreed, the plans will come into operation in the summer and will cost £820,150 to implement.

Libraries in Long Ashton, Pill, Winscombe, Worle, and Yatton will have extended opening hours on a "self service" basis, while the Congresbury branch will transfer to the parish council with support from community volunteers.

Raye Green campaigned to keep open Worle library, which will move to a shared building with the nearby children's centre.

"I think it's the wrong decision," she said.

"The space we are going to have available to us as a library in the children's centre is something like a third of the space we have now."

A meeting of North Somerset's executive on Tuesday afternoon is expected to approve the recommendations made in the report.