Draft Library Service Strategic Vision 2024–2028

Residents are being encouraged to have their say on a bold plan to transform the way Caerphilly County Borough Council’s library service is delivered in future.

The Council faces significant financial challenges over the next few years and must save £45 million to balance the budget. A number of services are being reviewed in order to identify savings and ensure efficiency gains.

Caerphilly currently operates 18 separate libraries across the county borough – one of the highest number of sites in Wales.

The council also offers a special ‘Librarylink’ service and digital library services, with an overall libraries budget of £3.4 million.

The consultation runs from 22 October 2024 for a period of six weeks and asks for your opinion on the draft strategic vision.

Residents are asked to have their say on the 4 key objectives:

• Improve and develop the library services availability and offer

• Help residents to access information, advice and support in a ‘hub’ location.

• Put community needs at the heart of our town centre hubs, to support and encourage greater resilience for individuals through support and signposting

• Rationalise the number of buildings to maximise resources and improve the overall offer

The consultation will help the council to better understand the needs of the community in order to shape the development of the hub vision; a model that has been tried and tested at the popular library hub site in Rhymney.

The vision indicates that the development of the hub model would result in an overall reduction in library venues, to allow the council to focus on the development of improved town centre hubs providing a one-stop-shop approach for community services.

Cabinet Member with responsibility for Library Services, Cllr. Carol Andrews said, “When exploring the future vision for the library service, it was clear that they have already become so much more than a place to borrow and read books.

We have seen how the evolution of digital services has enhanced the offer to become far more inclusive. We want to take that one step further and create a hub environment that acts as a one-stop-shop for residents. A warm and welcoming space that provides ready access to services in a town centre location with easy access to local transport links”.

She continued, “It is clear that the financial pressures have led us to consider the options to future-proof the service and that includes the potential rationalisation of the amount of sites that we have. That is why it is really important for us to seek a broad range of views on the proposal, so we are able to gain a greater understanding of the needs of our residents.”