ePetition details

Save Sheffield Libraries

We the undersigned petition the council to - Abolish volunteer libraries, bring back all 28 City Libraries back under the management of Sheffield Libraries and run them with council library staff. - Immediately implement the funding allocated to central library for essential repairs. - Abolish library fines. - Study options to apply for external funding to renovate and in the cases of the last two reopen and restaff Central, Tinsley Carnegie and Walkley Libraries.

Library use in Sheffield continues to decline overall, a victim of a fragmented and severely reduced service delivery model. In addition, transfer to volunteers has seen funding become more transient and the individual collection of books at Sheffield volunteer libraries not being available on the main Sheffield Libraries catalogue.

It should be noted that a similar sized city to Sheffield in Leeds has over 30 libraries still run by council library staff, many of which are even open Sundays and over the Christmas holidays. This is despite Leeds having suffered similar cuts to Sheffield under austerity.

The Save Sheffield Libraries petition demands that Sheffield Libraries take back all 16 volunteer run branch libraries under council control, that library fines are abolished and that efforts are made to apply for funding to restore Central, Walkley Carnegie and Tinsley Carnegie libraries to their former glory.

Started by: matt smith (Sheffield Libraries SOS)

This ePetition ran from 01/02/2020 to 02/06/2020 and has now finished.

126 people signed this ePetition.