December 3, 2013 2.05 pm
This story is over 96 months old
Lincolnshire libraries cuts plan approved
Passed proposal: Plans to turn 30 Lincolnshire libraries into community hubs or a mobile service have been approved by the County Council.
Campaigners against the library cuts stood on the steps of County Hall from 9.30am, before the Executive Meeting. Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Lincolnshire County Council executive members voted in favour of proposals designed to save the service £1.7 million.
Under the proposals, 30 libraries will become community-run libraries, plus in some areas, community hubs will be created where no library resources presently exist. Over 100 jobs would be lost in the process as well.
The changes come due to Lincolnshire County Council, who manage library provision in the county, needing to make £2 million savings after cuts from government.
The original plans to cut library services were met with a number of criticisms from the public, so a revised proposal was created in November.
There will still be 10 “Tier 1″ libraries, such as Lincoln Central, which will see no changes to provisions.
Meanwhile, the five “Tier 2″ libraries will also remain the same, however instead of only being open 25 hours a week, they will run for up to 31 hours per week instead — although Bourne will be open for 45 hours due an agreement with South Kesteven District Council.
Reading and music groups, schools library service, prison services, Bookstart, Listening Lincs, Call Connect, and other online and telephone services will also continue to run as normal.
Council support
The council will support up to 40 community-run libraries, with 29 communities made up of more than 550 households receiving large mobile stops of at least two hours a month.
The council also intends to raise the number of Tier 4 mobile stops, upon proof that at least six people use the service for at least 30 minutes per month.
So far, there have been 42 expressions of interest from communities in running their own library, with 25 existing facilities receiving at least one bid.
Birchwood, Cherry Willingham, Crowland, Nettleham and North Hykeham libraries in Lincoln all received more than one bid.
Communities can submit an expression of interest up until January 31, and Lincolnshire County Council will now send out letters and consult within communities that still have no bids for a hub.
Without any interest, that area will be given mobile services instead.
The council will offer communities at least 4,000 items of stock, a £15,000 one-off investment, £5,167 revenue grant, a 10 year lease with a four-year peppercorn rent, IT provisions, Library Development Officers, support and training, and further dedicated Community Advisors if needed during the transition period.
During the transition period, the council will also aim to keep the current library provisions open at 60% of usual hours until the hubs are ready to operate — but this can be no later than March 31, 2015.
However, at least 35 librarian posts will be lost, and 102 fewer posts to fill overall. Instead, it will be expected that volunteers come forward to run the services.
Positive takeup
However, within the meeting councillors were quick to praise the efforts of communities and those proposing to volunteer, describing the take up so far as “positive” and “encouraging”.
Councillor Nick Worth, Executive Member for Libraries, said that while residents may not be happy about the proposals, they have generally been understanding of the cuts the council face and seen some good ideas for running libraries over the coming years.
He also added that communities are free to do as they choose with their community hub, and the County Council will not be telling them how to run the library, merely offer support and training where needed.
Councillor Colin Davie for Ingoldmells Rural, who would see the addition of a community hub in his constituency due to the proposals, said:
“Communities are trying to shape the place they live… and we as a council should be supportive of that.”
Council officers will also be open to holding or attending meetings within communities who were interested in setting up a hub.
It was also added that various departments have had to go through cuts, and even the current library provision had to make savings, such as alterations within the IT service.
Nick Worth said: “I’m pleased, because at the end of the day we’ve been able to provide more static libraries than we started with, and still make £1.73 million in savings.
“It’s important for people to know that their libraries will be there, whether they’re run by the council or community groups.
“I understand that some residents will not be happy about the proposals, and it’s very clear a number of them are quite angry and they want their service to stay the same.
“Unfortunately, we’re in changing times and the County Council is going to be under a lot of financial pressure for many years to come. An option of staying as we are is not an option.
“We, as elected members, have to make some very difficult decisions. We appreciate that not everybody is going to be happy with that decision, but we have to make them.
“We will write to the communities that haven’t come forward with any interest yet, and where we know people in those areas, we’ll be approaching them as well, because what we want to do is open up the communication.
“There are often opportunities that people are not aware of, but once you start the conversation people will come forward. Then we can take it from there.”
He added: “It will be quite operational from here on out. We’ll be spending a lot of time working with those communities to ensure they’re got a sustainable business plans, we can help them if they are looking for grants and we can have discussions with them about the costings of the buildings so they can be assured that it’s going to be sustainable for them as well as us.
“I think it’s an exciting time for them. There will be a lot of operational work going on over the next couple of months to ensure we can have some libraries in place on May 6 to start the process off.”
Once the deadline for expression on interest in a hub is over on January 31, 2014, implementation will run until May 6, followed by the end of the transition period on March 31, 2015.
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A father was mistakenly mailed hundreds of addresses of parents with young children by North Lincolnshire Council.
The man received more than 200 letters intended for families with three-year-old children.
Instead of being sent separately to the correct addresses, all 208 letters were sent to his home.
They were all for parents with three-year-old children informing them they were eligible for funding, and had the intended addresses printed on them.
The North Lincolnshire dad is worried the details of so many people with young children could have accidentally ended up in the wrong hands.
He said: “I couldn’t believe that little kids’ information was sent out by mistake like this.
“I have two young girls, and I would hate to know that their information had been sent to someone else.
“The envelope was a huge package with my address on, so I assumed it was from work.
“I couldn’t believe when I opened it up and saw the identical letters with over 200 addresses on them.
“As soon as I realised what it was, I considered shredding it. In the end, I contacted North Lincolnshire Council to report it.
“How could a mistake like this happen? I dread to think if it has happened before.”
Letters with addresses of over 200 parents with three-year-old children were mistakenly sent to one home Credit: Submitted Approved for use by all partners
He has arranged to hand the letters back to North Lincolnshire Council to ensure that they are disposed of properly.
A spokesperson has promised that the way letters are posted has been changed to ensure it can’t happen again.
They said: “We take data protection very seriously and successfully send hundreds of thousands of letters each year.
“Changes have been made to the post system to ensure no such technical issues happen again and all the correspondence was eventually returned.”
The discussion was almost scuppered by a complaint, however progressed only to be deferred as members wished to visit the site.
Recommending approval, officers said the plans, which will include a mix of houses as well as bungalows for over 55s along with 12 homes classed as affordable, would provide “effective” use of the land and not create “unacceptable harm”.
The site is allocated for housing in the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan.
Mark Foster, land and planning director at Lindum Homes told the previous meeting the quality of houses was “vitally important” and the layout of the development was “extremely low density – incorporating more open space than required by planning policy”.
How the site could be laid out.
Objectors to the plans, however, said they presented a risk of overdevelopment and would have a long-term risk to the village infrastructure as well as biodiversity, residential amenity, the character of the village and highway safety.
Resident Nigel Heward, said existing infrastructure was “not fit for purpose” and that a lack of footpath provision at the proposed entry was “an accident waiting to happen”.
Lincolnshire County Council, as statutory consultees on highways, had not lodged any objections, but councillors wanted to see the situation for themselves.
As part of the plans the developers will be asked to make a £30,992.50 contribution to Welton Surgery so it can reconfigure its existing layout to create a larger clinical space and more flexibility to manage the projected patient increase.
A man accused of murdering Sam Davies in Lincoln has denied any involvement in the fatal stabbing, a trial heard on Friday.
The prosecution case is that Eimantas Gochman, who was 19 at the time of the attack on May 27 last year, was hired to carry out the hit on Mr Davies. Gochman is one of seven defendants on trial for murder.
The 23-year-old victim was stabbed twice in a park between Coleridge Gardens and Browning Drive at about 10.45pm and died hours later in hospital.
In police interviews read out to the jury at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, January 28, detectives put to Gochman that there was a lot of contact between a mobile number associated with him and co-defendant Joe Jameson’s mobile in the minutes after the stabbing.
Earlier that day, Jameson had demanded to know from Mr Davies’ partner where he was because he wanted to kill him.
A detective said to Gochman: “We’re saying that after the stabbing, you’ve contacted Joe Jameson.”
Gochman, who denied the number was his, said: “Yeah, but you believe I killed someone, which is not true.”
In a later interview on May 31, Gochman is told that Mr Davies’ mobile phone had been found a few feet away from a knife they believe was used in the attack.
“Is it likely your DNA will be on that phone?” the suspect is asked. Gochman replied: “There’s no way.”
It was put to him that co-defendant Eric Kesel told detectives that he’d heard Gochman dumped the knife.
Gochman said: “I’m just labelled as this ****ing killer and it’s completely not me. It’s just not nice, it’s not nice.”
A message with a bunch of flowers left at the scene reads “Too young to be gone. RIP”. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Gochman said he had been at The Lincoln Imp pub with friends until about 9pm, then went home to get changed and on to co-defendant Charlie Wakefield’s.
He’d then spent the whole night there before having to contact his mum in the morning to get him to work in Newark.
He said he was late to work, felt rough and got his mum to pick him up before lunchtime.
Police interviews with Wakefield were also read out to the court on Friday. He told detectives that he was on a curfew tag so had to be at home between 7pm and 7am.
He said Gochman had called him from the pub at about 8.45pm on the day of the stabbing to ask if could come round for a spliff. Wakefield had said that was fine.
Wakefield said Gochman called again about ten minutes later to say he was leaving the pub at that point and was going home first to get changed.
Gochman called one further time to check it was still ok, about a minute before he arrived at Wakefield’s home in Broxholme Gardens.
According to Wakefield, neither of them left the house again before Gochman’s mum picked up her son at about 8am the following morning to take him to work.
Wakefield said in the interviews that a 17-year-old co-defendant, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, also spent the night with them and was sent out in a taxi to buy weed from a friend of Wakefield’s.
Flowers left in tribute of Lincoln stabbing victim Sam Davies. | Photo: The Lincolnite
Wakefield said co-defendant Eric Kesel told him on May 28 there was “armed police, CID, forensics, everything” on Browning Drive.
The detectives were told by Wakefield he went for a look and was told by a police officer at a cordon that there had been a stabbing. Kesel had arrived there moments later, jokingly calling him “PC Wakefield” and the police officer made a comment about the surname.
Then, later in the day, when Wakefield found out Kesel had been arrested, he said he started “panicking” that he would be “dragged into it”. He admitted making a quick internet search about being an accessory to a crime.
Wakefield said Gochman had been “calm” when he arrived and they had drunk beer, smoked and played Fifa.
He said: “I’m not being funny but if he came round my yard and said ‘Oh, I’ve just done this murder’, I’ll go in the next room and I’ll ring the ****ing police myself. **** that.”
All seven defendants face one count of murder, which they all deny. They are Billy Gill, 21, of Hatcliffe Gardens; Daniel Heydari, 25, of Chestnut Street; Joe Jameson, 24, of Whitehall Terrace; Eimantas Gochman, 20, of Sturton Close; Eric Kesel, 19, of Browning Drive; and Charlie Wakefield, 21, of Broxholme Gardens. A 17-year-old boy cannot be legally identified due to his age. Jameson is also accused of making a threat to kill, which he denies.
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