There’s been some eye-popping adjectives used to describe how Suffolk County Council is acting decisively to keep libraries open and accessible to the communities that rely on them.
For example, in his EADT column, Mark Murphy urged people to sign a Suffolk Libraries petition which calls for Suffolk Libraries to continue running libraries. This means opening hours would be reduced and continuing to pay Suffolk Libraries’ large back-office costs. He insists there was no reason to consider any other alternative. We disagree. Here are our responses to the arguments doing the rounds this week.
"Lack of notice"
Some people have spoken out about Suffolk Libraries having limited notice of our proposal before it was made public. It’s quite hard to see why they didn’t see this coming. Weeks earlier, Suffolk Libraries flatly rejected our final offer of a direct contract award. We were even writing back and forth about this possibility. What did they think would happen next? That we would simply accept their demands for ever more money and agree to reduce library opening times?
Suffolk Libraries should have known this was coming. Their management had ample time to prepare for either outcome and clearly failed to do so. That’s for them to answer to, not us.
2012: The Decision That Saved Libraries
Many supporters of Suffolk Libraries reference 2012 in their arguments, when Suffolk County Council fought to keep libraries open when funding for public services was being cut. At the time, the council faced severe financial constraints but still had a legal duty to maintain services—libraries, social care, children’s services, roads. Having found no way to balance these priorities financially, we began to explore the possibility that we would have to close several of our libraries.
The public was outraged, and protests and petitions flooded in. We decided to take a real risk at the time: divesting our services into an Industrial and Provident Society, which would later become Suffolk Libraries. This decision was also unpopular with many, including unions. Still, it seemed the only way to keep our libraries open. We were proven right.
That decision saved our library service. Suffolk County Council created the conditions for Suffolk Libraries to exist, the council provided the necessary funding and set the strategic direction for the next decade.
We did not do all that in 2012 to see our libraries put at risk in 2025.
The £3 Million Myth
Claims that Suffolk Libraries provides the same service for £3 million less than in 2012, are simply false.
The service we divested to save in 2012 is not the same one we are insourcing to protect in 2025. For example, the contract back then included the School Library Service, which has since ended due to the rise of academies. The budget was reduced accordingly.
Meanwhile, our contract with Suffolk Libraries is actually 12% more expensive than last year. Suffolk County Council has increased our funding by £720,000 annually to help cover rising costs.
Suffolk Libraries may have raised £400,000 in income last year, but according to their own published accounts they estimate a £381,000 total operating deficit this year, forcing them to eat into their reserves just to keep going. They demand ever more money without cutting back-office costs—something they refused to even consider during our recent negotiations. We even saw written evidence provided by them that Suffolk Libraries' financial future was in doubt.
We will not bail out Suffolk Libraries' back-office costs with taxpayer money, and we will not place our precious library service in the hands of anyone we cannot trust is financially competent or viable.
The Prison Library Myth
We have seen the prison libraries contract referenced by patrons already. They are not a part of our contract and Suffolk Libraries' own online accounts state:
“Suffolk Libraries, as a charity, runs library services in prisons in Suffolk, Norfolk, and Hertfordshire and operates other services that are funded by Grants outside of Suffolk County Council. It is considered that Suffolk Libraries can continue to fulfil its duties to these operations with or without the SCC contract.”
So, the good news is that prison libraries will stay open, provided Suffolk Libraries remain true to their word.
We are saving libraries again
Far from spinning anything, all Suffolk County Council has done is make a recommendation based upon the financial figures provided by Suffolk Libraries alongside their own clearly stated operational positions, which were reducing library opening hours, demanding ever more money without any consideration of back office or senior management cost savings, and demanding contract terms and conditions that were illegal for us to agree to.
If our Cabinet agrees, we will return the library service in-house starting in June. This means all 45 libraries will stay open, all library opening hours will remain the same, all front-line staff will return to Suffolk County Council's care, and we will continue to invest more in a library service our residents can be rightly proud of.
I am sorry that Suffolk Libraries and its patrons find such a positive future so undesirable that they feel the need to create a petition to try and stop it.
