Saving the Library - Again!

On Wednesday HOWLS held a meeting in the new Library about the proposed cuts to the Library service by Powys County Council.
It was a smaller audience than the previous week's meeting about the more general cuts (petitions are still available to sign in several local shops in Hay), but that was only to be expected because this is a single issue - how to keep Hay Library open when the PCC want to cut the funding to pay a librarian. Having said that, the information about the meeting goes out to 390 people on the mailing list.
Before the meeting Anita Wright, the Chair, had contacted several local community councils, since Hay Library also serves the populations of Clifford, Clyro, Cusop and other surrounding villages, and several representatives of those community councils turned up, along with Trudy Stedman, the Mayor of Hay.
The meeting opened with a tribute to Jayne, the Librarian, who is retiring due to ill health (there's a card and collection box for a present on the librarian's desk). Stepping into her shoes, having previously assisted her, is Jane.

Anita outlined the situation so far, and what HOWLS has been doing behind the scenes, including contacting the other nine small rural libraries that are, again, under threat of closure or becoming "volunteer-led".
One absolutely essential point to make is that you cannot have a library without a librarian. Without a trained librarian, it's just a room with books in, however keen and committed the volunteers are, and it will eventually decline to the point where the County Council closes it down.
Janet Robinson, one of the library volunteers and on the committee of HOWLS, made the point that volunteers are needed, because there is too much work for the librarian to do on her own, and volunteers also enhance the library by providing activities like storytime, which is very popular, or IT training. She said that between 350 and 400 people use the library every week, so it's a popular service.
But, Hay Library needs a librarian.

Various suggestions were put forward for fund raising, including charging a subscription to use the library, but it was pointed out that borrowing books from a public library has to be free under the 1964 Act of Parliament, and charging even a minimal amount will put off people who need the service, including teenagers who are the group which at present uses the library least.

The proposal HOWLS is putting forward is to form a CIC to raise money to pay a librarian.
This effectively means that the people of Hay will be paying twice for the service which already comes out of Council Tax, but it seems like the only way to save the library in the short term.
We are fortunate to have Michael, who stood up to explain how CICs work - he was part of the group that came up with the concept, and he started the first one in Powys (only the second in Wales) for everyone who remembers the Department of Enjoyment, which was set up to organise Hay-on-Fire. There has also been another CIC in Hay, the body which was formed to renovate the Cheesemarket, which has been very successful. He pointed out that if 250 people each paid £100, we could amply fund the librarian's wages, and Tim Organ reminded people that, when Plan B was set up to stop a supermarket being built on the present school site, they managed to raise £30,000 in three weeks! So it's possible. The representative from Clyro said that it was possible for them to give a grant, but it would only be in the region of £500.
The idea, of course, is not just to hand over the money, having raised it, to Powys and hope for the best. HOWLS and the Library would want a legally binding agreement with the County Council to keep the Library open. The first priority is to give the Librarian security of tenure.
It was also pointed out that the position of Hay, on the border, gave us an advantage, in that we could also appeal to Herefordshire County Council, since we also serve Herefordshire villages. Also, their system of training volunteers is apparently far better than Powys.

The meeting was overshadowed by the fact that Powys County Council were meeting the following morning to vote on this coming year's budget. Several councillors, including Gareth Ratcliffe and James Gibson-Watt (who sent their apologies to the meeting, both having to be elsewhere), tried to come up with an alternative budget, but were not allowed to see some of the financial information they needed, so they weren't allowed to put their alternative budget forward.
Now, that meeting (which was webcast live) has happened, and the budget was voted down, which means there is a short period of grace where the councillors can attempt to come up with an alternative budget, which is hopefully less damaging to the small communities of Powys.

Incidentally, I have a spy in Llanidloes, one of the other towns on the list of threatened libraries. She tells me that, in 2017, the library there moved into the same building as the local museum, but with reduced space, and they were told then that the library was safe for five years. That was two years ago, and now the County Council wants to close it altogether.