Campaigners have won backing from their MP as they look to find a way to keep their village library open.
Rottingdean Library is one of three community libraries threatened with closure as part of budget cuts aimed at saving Brighton and Hove City Council £250,000 over two years from its £3.7 million a year libraries budget.
Villagers have rallied to find a way to keep Rottingdean Library open – not least as the sixth most popular in Brighton and Hove, according to the council’s Library Sustainability Plan.
The plan compared 13 libraries in Brighton and Hove and said that almost 29,000 people visited Rottingdean.
Half of them used the Libraries Extra service, when the library is unstaffed. The building is staffed on only two days a week.
The Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Chris Ward, joined Rottingdean author Elly Griffiths to meet campaigners who set up a petition which had attracted almost 3,500 signatures at the time of writing.
Mr Ward said: “Libraries play a vital role in our communities – especially for local schools and nurseries – helping people of all ages get immersed in books and learning.
“I want to keep Rottingdean Library open and have been working closely with Brighton and Hove City Council, the Save Rottingdean Library campaign, the parish council and the Rottingdean Heritage Society – all of whom I’ve spoken to in recent weeks – to find a way forward.
“Communities need libraries and Rottingdean is no exception. The strength of feeling locally is crystal clear.”
Campaigner Sarah Craven-Antill hopes that a solution could be found after what was described as a productive discussion – and there’s been some encouraging momentum.
She was thrilled to see Rottingdean Parish Council’s August meeting packed with people who wanted to support the library.
A teacher from St Margaret’s Church of England Primary School spoke at the meeting about how she took her children and now takes her pupils to the library to encourage them to sign up.
Mrs Craven-Antill said: “It’s so important – and the idea of sending them (the children) to Saltdean is just not going to happen. It’s one of the things those children who aren’t signed up are going to lose out on.
“What we’re concerned about in the village is there’s two primary schools and two nurseries – one of the nurseries goes to the library weekly. This is part of their activities. They can’t be crossing the A259 twice to get to Saltdean.
“We’re really concerned the true impact of this proposed closure has not been fully explored.”
A report to the council’s cabinet last month said that Rottingdean Library was within two miles of Saltdean Library, had good transport links and many people used both libraries.
The campaigners want the library to stay open because, Mrs Craven-Antill said, it would be a struggle to create a volunteer-run community library. Many who might volunteer were already committed to other projects in the village.
But there could be enough volunteers to manage a few shifts two days a week.
The area was described as having “less evidence of deprivation” and reducing the number of libraries from two to one would achieve savings with “minimal impact” on residents, the report said.
More than 500 people have responded to the Library Sustainability Plan consultation on the council’s website.
The consultation also has questions about the proposed closure of two other libraries – Hollingbury Library, at the Old Boat Corner Community Centre, and Westdene Library, in Bankside.
The consultation is open until Friday 10 October. Paper copies are available from family hubs, libraries, Hove Town Hall reception and the Homelessness Helpdesk at Bartholomew’s House, in Brighton.
You can access the consultation here: https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/news/2025/share-your-views-future-our-libraries
We’re deep in the dystopian nightmare.
The reason we’re closing city services is because of collapsing funding from central government. Chris Ward is Kier Starmer’s right hand man (he literally sits behind him during passing him information during PMQs) so why is he signing a petition and not talking to his boss about that.
In addition, it is the Labour council that has chosen to close this location. Why is he signing a petition instead of picking up the phone to his “friend” and council leader Bella Sankey.
All these people think we’re mugs, including this news outlet which fails to highlight these two facts in this piece.
Yep – why is Chris Ward not lobbying his pals Keir and Rachel about the disastrous impact of their ongoing austerity drive.
100% agree that libraries should not be closed by this Tory impersonating Labour council, but for the local Labour MP to pose for a photo shoot, and to not mention local government funding cuts, or do anything to address the root cause of local funding pressures at a national level is madness!! Does he think people are stupid and not understand how things work!
You’re actually making the best case I’ve heard for why Brighton needs more financial independence through devolution. If we had real devolution of funding powers, councils wouldn’t be forced into a cycle of cuts every time national budgets get squeezed — we could protect core services like libraries without waiting for MPs to “have a word” with their bosses in London.
But the devolution as it’s being presented to us by the Lab government and Lab council in Brighton is just a smokescreen allowing them to continue with austerity. By shifting boundaries it just moves problems around, when the actual issue is funding core services in the meantime. Ultimately, all that money comes from central government, other than the bits raised by council tax and business rates, so while there’s austerity at a national level, devolution will do nothing to actually fix local budget problems, it just trickles down in a slightly different pattern.
Also concerned about the amount of air time devolution is getting. So much council business time is being spent discussing it, leaving not much room on council meeting agendas for other issues they could be addressing.
I get the concern; it’s something we’ve talked about before, but that’s why the form of devolution matters. If it’s just a reshuffle of boundaries without new fiscal powers, you’re right – it won’t break the cycle. But done properly, with real control over revenue and investment, it’s one of the few ways local government can escape the dependency on central government decisions.
As such, I think it is important that the Labour council is looking at devolution in detail. I think the speed at which this is happening certainly is debatable. I’m not convinced that the expedited pathway was the best choice. But it unreservedly deserves plenty of airtime to get it right.
Meanwhile, yes, the council still has to keep the day-to-day running, but without fixing the structure, every year will just be another round of firefighting.
Did someone tell little Chris that it’s his own party trying to close the library?
It’s a cynical PR opportunity for him to offer platitudes and deflect that he is a major part of the problem. Always happy for a photo shoot but can’t be a*sed to answer his emails on any subject of importance.
Do you not think securing the future of Libraries in the city is important, Ann?
Of course I value the resource but this MP is part of the party that is decimating the fabric of our Society. He does not respond to emails or answer anything but parades around claiming credit for amending decisions such as this and the Wellsbourne fiasco when he was backed into a corner. Btw the Wellsbourne issue is yet to be resolved just delayed. It is the system perpetrated by successive Governments that causes these issues. I note that many of the local bigwigs have yet to respond!
Politics aside, I do think Libraries fit really well within a community centre or space, especially when you consider the secondary functions of a library and centre – they have a lot of overlap.
If the numbers stack up, why wouldn’t that be a middle ground worth exploring?
Ask the Trumpian Labour cabinet to give back the pay rise pay rise they stole, sorry I mean handed themselves. Alternatively, they could blame the Greens as they do for everything else.
I’m not sure what “Trumpian” is meant to add here. The “Labour vs Greens” blame loop is as old as the council chamber. It’s fair to say the Greens made some costly financial decisions we’re still feeling today, but Labour now has the responsibility of fixing those problems while dealing with unprecedented funding pressures.
Many would agree that the priority has to be protecting libraries by finding long-term funding solutions, so personally, I welcome actions like this article.
The pay of B&HCC cabinet members and councillors is set by an Independent Panel.
No member of the council sits on the panel.
Well done residents.
Only the uneducated would seek to close a public Library, ignorant of the fact that any short-term cost savings would quickly be dwarfed by significant knock-on increases caused to mental health, homelessness and other budgets, even crime, the Library’s community loss will lead to. However much they use their local library, the majority of people appreciate that it’s there for them and that it is a valuable community asset at the heart of that community. Many Libraries also host reading, writing and other community events in addition to acting as a community resource for information, access to computers and printers. They do so much more than just lend books. Here is a good article.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/24097712.cutting-library-funding-comes-high-social-cost/?ref=twtrec