More than one in eight Scottish libraries have had to permanently shut their doors since 2010, as a result of SNP cuts, the Scottish Conservatives have discovered.
A parliamentary question submitted by MSP Miles Briggs revealed that 83 public libraries have closed in Scotland since 2009-10 – the equivalent of one every seven weeks.
Over the same period, spending on public libraries plummeted by 30%, despite the fact that yearly visitor numbers to libraries increased by over 40%.
By 2019-20, there were just 544 public libraries remaining in Scotland to service almost 45million annual visits.
According to COSLA, funding pressures on public services such as libraries have been exacerbated by ballooning ring-fenced or ‘protected’ funding over recent years.
By 2019-20 ‘protected’ funding had almost doubled from 2013-14 levels to over 60% of council budgets, leaving ‘unprotected’ services such as libraries taking ‘the largest hit’.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, Miles Briggs MSP said: “The demand for public libraries has grown over the past 10 years, yet successive SNP cuts have led to one in eight of them shutting their doors.
“Years of underfunding and increased ring-fencing from the SNP have eroded the ability of councils to deliver the essential local services their communities really need.
“Libraries are not just a place to borrow books, they are at the heart of local communities, and make a real difference to the daily lives of millions of Scots.
“Free, high-quality public libraries are key to addressing so many of Scotland’s most pressing challenges – from the ever-widening attainment gap, to Scotland’s growing digital skills needs, to our cultural recovery from the pandemic.
“The demand for libraries is there, now we need the funding. If the SNP really want to support our local communities to recover from the pandemic, they must urgently work with councils to reverse this worrying trend and restore Scotland’s public libraries.”
Notes:
More than one in eight Scottish libraries closed permanently between 2009-10 and 2019-20. According to a Scottish Government response to a written parliamentary question submitted by Scottish Conservative MSP, Miles Briggs, the number of public libraries in Scotland declined from 627 in 2009-10 to 544 in 2019-20, representing a loss of 83 libraries in total – or 13.2% (link).
Over the same period spending on library services has dropped by almost one third, despite visitor numbers increasing. According to a publication from the Local Government Benchmarking Framework, there was a reduction of 29.6% in net spending on library services between 2010-11 and 2019-20. At the same time, visitor numbers increased by 41.1% from 31.8 million to 44.9 million, (p98, link).
According to COSLA, ‘unprotected’ services such as libraries and sports facilities have taken ‘the largest hit’ since 2013-14. According to a 2020 COSLA briefing, Invest in Essential Services, there was a simultaneous reduction in Local Government funding between 2013/14 and 2019-20, and an increase in the proportion of council budgets that was ‘protected’ or ring-fenced for national initiatives – eroding the flexibility of councils to choose how to spend their budget. Between 2013/14 and 2019/20 national policy initiatives increased from 34% to 61% of council funding, meaning that cuts could only be applied to the dwindling unprotected portion and causing funding cuts to be amplified in those services. According to the briefing, “services such as roads, buses, paths, planning, community learning, events, sports facilities, libraries, tourism, business support, environmental health, and trading standards all sit within the unprotected portion of the budget and have taken the largest hit since 2013/14” (p5, link) .