To consider the delivery options for museums, libraries and archives in advance of a decision being made by cabinet and determine any recommendations that the Committee would wish cabinet to consider.

The committee was invited to consider the future delivery of museums, libraries and archives services in advance of a decision being made by cabinet and determine any recommendations that the committee would wish cabinet to consider.

A supplement had been circulated containing submissions that had been requested from the Herefordshire Museum Support Service Group, Joint Action for Herefordshire libraries and the Friends of Herefordshire Archives, together with a range of other submissions various groups had chosen to submit of their own accord.  It was noted that a late submission had been received from the friends of Leominster library and that this had been made available to members of the Committee prior to the meeting

The ADC gave a presentation, as included with the agenda papers.

Miriam Griffiths of the Herefordshire Museum Support Service Group gave a presentation based on slides within the Group’s submission, referencing the report on the Future Resilience of Herefordshire Council’s Museum Service jointly commissioned by the Group and the council.  Nina Shields spoke on behalf of Joint action for Herefordshire libraries and Richard Smith spoke on behalf of the Friends of Herefordshire Archives emphasising points made in their published submissions.

In discussion the following principal points were made:

·        A question was asked about the large increase in the user numbers for Bromyard library in 2017 compared with 2016. The ADC commented that previously all visitors to the Bromyard Centre, which provided several services, had been counted and the library user number had been published as one third of that total number.  Now all visitors to the centre were counted as library users because the library was open all the time.  However, the council did not have a figure for those just using the library to access books because people also used the library for computer access and other services.  The ADC suggested that it could be useful to look at the issue numbers and this could be included in the report to cabinet.

·        It was observed that the matter had generated considerable public interest. There was a public awareness of the financial constraints the council faced and the need for services to be cost effective.  Within that context the submissions made on the matter had raised a series of questions.  In summary it was suggested these related to: the specification of future standards of performance; the cost of the level of service required to meet statutory requirements; monitoring of payments to a supplier; the feasibility of zero subsidy and whether suppliers would be allowed to achieve a certain level of profit and whether this would mean that the services were in fact cheaper to run; assessment of risk - mindful of the ongoing liabilities/responsibilities of the council; the potential loss of economies currently secured from being part of a consortium; failures of library outsourcing elsewhere in the country; the future of volunteer led libraries, delivery libraries, school services and community libraries; recognition of the differences between museums, libraries and archives; the population growth and consequent increase  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73