Grove Library Decision

This afternoon I went to address the special Cabinet meeting which was to decide on the future of Oxfordshire's libraries.  You can see the report in the link on my previous blog post here.

As I pointed out in my speech, we have gone from a situation a year ago where we were threatened with closure to a position now where we have been designated a Community Plus Library.  This means that our library stays open as usual, however, we will have two thirds paid staff and one third volunteers.  Hopefully, this should mean that there will always be a paid member of staff in the library to support any volunteers.

I have met with the Friends of Grove Library group (FROGs) on many occasions where we have discussed the proposals with the Cabinet member and officers from the council and it is hoped that we will be able to find a local solution which will be of benefit to everyone in the community.  There was some discussion today about the possibility that with volunteers, we may even be able to have longer opening times, especially during the weekends when more people are available to help.

I emphasised the point that with future housing development planned that the library status will need to be upgraded, and assurances were given that a review would certainly happen in four years time and earlier if housing growth had taken place in the meantime.