Devon County Council library service funding cuts are expected to reduce the core staffed opening hours of the county’s libraries from a total of just under 1,300 hours each week to just under 915 hours each week, a fall of nearly 30%.
The cuts are expected to affect 43 of Devon’s 50 libraries, four of which are in Exeter.
The county council has outsourced the provision of library services, which it has a statutory duty to provide, to Libraries Unlimited, an independent charity, since 2016.
The 2024-25 library services contract provided the charity, which also runs four libraries on behalf of Torbay Council which are not affected by the cuts, with just over £7 million.
The county council said: “The library service budget has been reduced year on year, and all realistic efficiency savings have already been made. The current model is no longer sustainable.”
Libraries Unlimited said it has been using its financial reserves to “plug funding gaps” for “the last few years” but “cannot continue to do this”.
Devon library locations. Image: Devon County Council
Devon County Council published a library service needs assessment in October which it says will “inform the strategic direction of the service and help to identify gaps and opportunities for development”.
The assessment says the county council has already had to make “significant budget savings across all its services” and expects to have to make more.
As a result, it is proposing not only to cut core libraries opening hours but also to increase its reliance on volunteers for day-to-day service delivery in “community-run libraries”.
It is also proposing to adopt Open Plus technology more widely to enable library access when staff are not present.
However, despite emphatically saying that “no libraries will close under the proposals”, the county council is also seeking comments, in response to a public consultation which opened earlier this month, on the possibility of closing some library branches altogether.
Exeter Library in Rougemont Gardens
Core opening hours at all four Exeter libraries are to be cut under the plans, although those at the city’s central library are only to fall from 58 to 55 hours each week.
Exeter’s three other libraries are to fare much worse. Topsham core hours are to be reduced from 17.5 to 6 hours each week, Pinhoe from 15 to 6 hours each week and St Thomas from 38 to 15 hours each week – a 60% fall across the three branches.
However around 24,000 of the county’s 114,000 active library users are Exeter residents – the highest proportion among Devon’s eight districts – with children accounting for more than half the physical library stock across all four sites.
The city also accounts for the highest proportion of digital media issues across the county.
Topsham Library in Nancy Potter House
Alongside physical and digital media borrowing services, Devon libraries provide computer, printer and internet access as well as places to meet, socialise and keep warm.
They received a total of 2.3 million visits in 2024-25 and hosted 12,000 events which drew over 218,000 attendees. They also offer a range of children’s activities among other things.
Exeter, Barnstaple, Paignton, Seaton and Okehampton libraries each house a Business & Intellectual Property Centre which provides free support services to local organisations and FabLab Devon provides a digital makerspace in Exeter Library.
Libraries Unlimited is also an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and offers a home book-borrowing delivery service which is staffed by volunteers.
St Thomas Library in Emmanual Hall. Photo: Libraries Unlimited.
As an independent charity, Libraries Unlimited can seek grant funding for service and project delivery in addition to the public funding it receives from Devon County Council.
It recently refurbished the children’s library in Exeter with money received from the Clore Duffield Foundation and others, and is to lead the delivery of a five-year county-wide climate action programme after being approved for £1.5 million in National Lottery funding.
However, the aspirations for financial independence which accompanied its creation as a county council spin-out in 2016 have not been realised, and it remains dependent on public funding.
Its contracts with Devon County Council and Torbay Council constituted just over 80% of its income in 2023-24, the most recent financial year for which it has published accounts.
Pinhoe Library in Lower Harrington Lane
Libraries Unlimited agreed an initial ten-year service delivery contract with the county council in 2016 which ends on 31 March 2026.
At its October meeting, Devon County Council’s Cabinet agreed in principle to extend the contract by two years, with a further year “if required”, subject to the provision of “information relating to the value of the contract” – which is not specified in the meeting minutes as it took place in private.
At its November meeting it reviewed the progress of negotiations with Libraries Unlimited over the terms of the contract extension, again in private, then did so again at its meeting last week.
It said it intends to decide the matter at a Cabinet meeting on 14 January – also in private and nearly six weeks before the public consultation on the future of Devon libraries is due to end on Sunday 22 February.
Consultation responses can be submitted via an online survey or a paper copy of the survey form, available in library branches, which can be handed in at any Devon library or returned by post to Room L39, County Hall, Topsham Road, Exeter EX2 4QD.
The Devon County Council consultation team can also be contacted via email on communitiesconsultation@devon.gov.uk.
It says that consultation responses will be reviewed before revised proposals for the future of Devon library services are presented to Devon County Council Cabinet at its meeting on 11 March next year.
