Agenda and draft minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of the business on the agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal interests they might have not included on their Register of Interests or any prejudicial or disclosable pecuniary interests they might have in the business on the agenda.  No interests were declared.

It is at this point in the meeting that members of the public who have registered their wish to speak can do so. The deadline for registering is Wednesday 17 April 2013.

To register please contact the Democracy Officer at for the meeting on the details at the foot of this agenda.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Members will receive an interim report on the review to date and are asked to consider their draft recommendations arising from this review, and any required revisions to this report.

Members considered an interim report on the Libraries review which asked them to consider whether any further information was required to conclude the work on the review, whether any further revisions to the report were needed and to identify some draft recommendations, prior to the draft final report being considered by the Learning and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 1 May.

The Scrutiny Officer drew Members attention to the highlight report which presented the findings from the 2012 library consultation (attached to the agenda as annex B) and asked Members to consider those findings.

The Head of Libraries, Information and Archives provided a verbal update on the draft business plan for a potential social enterprise to operate the Council’s Library and Archive Services.  She confirmed that officers had been working very hard on the social enterprise and as a result:

·        The procurement process had been won by Mutual Ventures.

·        They had been working with Somerset Council and also with the Service Manager (Prevention and Support Services) from Warden Call to progress their plans for a social enterprise.

·        They had obtained legal advice with regard to the legal implications of a social enterprise and are putting together a report on this. They have also consulted with HR and Asset lawyers in relation to issues around staff and property.

·        They had undertaken consultation with libraries staff. The Cabinet Member had visited all York libraries and two workshops had taken place with a third planned for early May. Throughout the process, library staff had been given opportunities to put forward their opinions. A staff working group had been established and had a growing membership. They had encouraged staff to be more open and had managed to resolve many issues. As a result staff views had shifted- staff were now more comfortable with the proposals due to better understanding of what was planned and most staff were now broadly in support.

·        With regard to public consultation, Question and Answer displays were up in all libraries explaining the proposals in simple terms.

·        They were now putting together a business plan which set out the case for a social enterprise – which would be one third owned by staff and two thirds by the community. The aim of social enterprise would be for it to work for the benefit of the community but still remain a professionally run service

Members then considered the interim report and asked if information was available on how much the direct dial phone for housing benefit enquiries at Acomb Library was used. Officers advised that this wasn’t used much and agreed to provide Members with exact figures by email.¹

Officers advised they had researched what was happening nationally with regard to the development of community libraries and explained there were different models in operation. In York they advised that the community library was a partnership between the local authority and the community. They informed Members that in North Yorkshire, some libraries which had been threatened with closure were now  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.