Three community campaigners put their case to save two of Brighton’s libraries from shutting before councillors held a debate and voted to call for a pause in the closure process.
People from Rottingdean and Westdene addressed Brighton and Hove City Council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee yesterday (Monday 10 November) before councillors discussed a proposal to cut £250,000 from the libraries budget.
The committee was discussing the council’s libraries sustainability plan which proposes closing three libraries – the third is Hollingbury – and cutting weekend and late opening hours at the Jubilee Library, in Brighton, and Carnegie Library, in Hove.
Clare Hayes, from the Save Rottingdean Library campaign, said that the council’s proposals had not followed a proper decision-making process.
She said that the £250,000 cut to the library service’s budget had been made at the council’s budget meeting in February without a public consultation.
She also said: “The equality impact assessment showed very high impact on protected groups, including older people, without sufficient mitigation.
“It suggested that older residents could be served, with increasing isolation, in their own homes, via electronic or delivery services, despite the fact that Brighton and Hove intend to make cuts in these very services.”
She said that the proposals focused on economic deprivation but ignored the very high use of Rottingdean Library – the sixth most popular of the 13 libraries in Brighton and Hove, with 28,837 visitors in a year.
Half of Rottingdean Library’s visitors used the Libraries Extra service, which operates when no staff are available, because the building is only open two-days a week.
Alicia Buckingham, who spoke on behalf of Westdene Library supporters, said that Patcham was not a viable alternative to the library in Bankside because of steep hills and the lack of public transport links between the two areas.
She said: “To children, older people and those without cars, Patcham Library is effectively inaccessible.
“Even for drivers, replacing a five-minute stop at Westdene after school with a 20-minute round trip is unrealistic and contradicts the council’s active travel and air pollution policies.
“Closing Westdene would deny easy access to books and social connections – and the council needs to be honest about this.
“Many residents rely on the library for digital access, printing and face-to-face support, yet library staff are already only available one day a week. Closing it would deepen isolation.”
The library has the second-fewest visits, with 10,039 a year, two thirds of which were Libraries Extra. However, it is open only one day a week.
Supporting documents submitted to the meeting said that the library had had one public event in recent years, the December 2023 Winter Craft Fair.
This compared with the weekly story time at Coldean, Rottingdean and Moulsecoomb – and several events at the main Jubilee Library and those in Hove and Portslade.
David Powell spoke about his love of Westdene Library when he was a child and then raising his family in the area.
He recalled a warm bright place full of interesting books when he visited regularly as a child in the 1970s.
Mr Powell said: “My mother often read to me and my sister there and we usually borrowed a few children’s books.
“I remember using encyclopaedias and reference books there to do homework (and) later on going to Hove Library too. I learned how to find resources and that asking the librarians is always helpful.”
When he and his wife moved to the area, his three children loved going to the library – with their parents and through school.
He said: “Having so much choice in a non-commercial space is an almost unique experience in today’s world.
“They loved the process of selecting books, taking them up to the counter and engaging with the librarians.”
He called on the council to reopen the part of the library which was taken over by Westdene Primary School when it needed to expand, saying that it had now reduced its intake, with fewer children starting school across Brighton and Hove.
After the campaigners’ deputations, the council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee spent more than two hours discussing the results of a public consultation completed by more than 2,700 people, with most objecting to the proposed closures.
They called on the council’s cabinet to pause the process at a meeting next month.
The cabinet is due to meet on Thursday 11 December to discuss the future of Rottingdean, Hollingbury and Westdene libraries as well as cuts to opening hours at the two main libraries in Brighton and Hove.
