Gosforth Library petition - official response from Newcastle City Council

Petition - Gosforth Library

Thank you for submitting the petition about the reduction in opening hours at Gosforth Library.

As a result of significant funding reductions to the council, the amount of savings required to be made by the Customer, Culture and Skills (CCS) Division are significant (just short of £1m).

The only way to achieve this saving across the library and customer services network is by making significant reductions to opening hours, specialist staff and management posts.

We are looking to mitigate these reductions in a number of ways and are in active talks with partners about potentially extending unstaffed, self-service opening hours when the building might otherwise be closed. Although these discussions are in their early stages we are hopeful that at some point it will help the building to remain open for more than 23 hours for those who can serve themselves.

If I can be of any further help with this matter please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely

David Fay

Head of Service: Libraries, Leisure & Adult Learning