Cheshire East Libraries consultation 

In June, a Cheshire East Council consultation took place on proposals for library services.

The consultation included plans to reduce the current opening hours of libraries across Cheshire East so that all sites are closed for at least 1.5 days during the week.

It followed the approval of Cheshire East Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), which includes proposals for how the council plans to balance its budget for the next four years while protecting essential services.

In total, 3,200 responses were received during the consultation.

After considering the feedback, the proposals have now been revised to:

• Deliver the half day closure by opening later or closing earlier for four days of the week, instead of closing for a full half day. The timings will be based on usage data for each site.
• Reinstate 31 hours per week of opening hours across the borough, targeted at sites where usage and demand is greatest.

The combination of these proposals means that the libraries which are currently open each weekday will continue to be, with one of those days being a half-day opening.

The council has also received six formal expressions of interest from town and parish councils across the borough to fund ‘top up’ library services.

Subject to entering into formal funding agreements later in the year, this could positively impact the revised opening hours for specific library sites even further.

On Thursday 27th July, the council’s environment and communities committee will be asked to decide on the implementation details of these proposals.

It is expected that any changes to opening hours would be from November this year.