An incoming plan to reduce library staff hours is ‘innovation not cuts’, Buckinghamshire Council has said.

Under ‘Library Flex’, staff hours will be reduced by 25-30 per cent with a potential ‘headcount reduction’ of 18-20 full time equivalent members of staff.

Alongside the staff reduction, self-serve kiosks for book borrowing and printing will be installed, and community groups encouraged to use libraries when there are no staff on site.

The council says its plan will increase the hours of access by 50 per cent, saving £555,000 per year.

Cllr Clive Harriss, cabinet member for culture and leisure, defended the ‘innovative’ plan and claimed vulnerable groups were being consulted by the council.

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The cabinet member also pointed out that mobile phones can now store books and that ‘a lot of children were fortunate to have that sort of access at home’, but that the council would make sure vulnerable groups also had access.

He told this week’s council meeting: “It is innovation, not swingeing cuts. I know it does sound great on a headline, ‘swingeing cuts’. Innovation.”

The cabinet member defended Library Flex after councillor Julia Wassell said librarians were an ‘essential part’ of giving children the best start in life and were a remedy for loneliness for some older people.

Cllr Wassell: “We are hearing that there are swingeing cutbacks in the library service, which none of us want to see.

“We value librarians. We value their knowledge and wisdom. I think that you should rethink doing away with librarians.”

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