St Helens Council criticised for job adverts after library closures

Although a "significant majority" of consulted residents disagreed with plans to close six libraries in St Helens, libraries in Garswood, Rainhill, Rainford, and Parr closed their doors for the final time on Friday, January 26.

This added to the libraries that had previously closed in Peter Street and Billinge, with the council blaming the decision on continuing budget cuts from central government.

Across the borough's remaining seven libraries, the council stated aims to provide a new library strategy with a "modern forward-thinking service", and six jobs were advertised in some of these centres over the weekend.

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Residents came to mark the final day of four community libraries last month (Image: Derek Wainwright)
 

Inevitably, the advertising of new roles not long after some communities lost their library has caused upset in some quarters of the borough.

At smaller libraries such as Garswood, for example, a Freedom of Information request showed that its total running costs only amounted to £39k in 2021/22.

Some residents highlighted these costs as two of the supervisor roles have an advertised pay grade of up to £28,770 per year. The four library assistant roles have a pay grade of up to £23,114 per year.

As the job advertisements come just weeks after people said goodbye to libraries in Garswood, Rainhill, Rainford, and Parr, some residents called the post "disrespectful" and "insensitive", while another described it as "utterly baffling".

An event to say farewell to the library service in Rainhill (Image: Rainhill Civic Society)
In response, the council explained that the borough's library service has been operating with a "high number of vacant posts for some time", which has affected how the service can operate.

The council confirmed that there were no redundancies following the closure of libraries and these workers were offered roles at the remaining centres.

The additional roles are also expected to help expand the new library strategy such as delivering a home delivery and click-and-collect service for eligible residents.

The new strategy also includes an outreach commitment by targeting schools and community settings that serve communities affected by library closures.

The closed venues also have the potential to be taken over as 'Community Managed Libraries', where community groups or volunteers take control of the facility and run a library service.

Councillors and library staff on the opening of St Helens library at the World of Glass in 2020 (Image: Bernard Platt)
Speaking about the library vacancies, a St Helens Borough Council spokesperson said: "Our library service has been running with a high number of vacant posts for some time, which has had an impact on the delivery of our current library service.

"This meant that there were no redundancies during recent changes to the way the library service operate.

"These new job posts will help us to deliver on our plans to provide a more flexible service without the need for last-minute closures or reductions in opening hours."

For more information about the roles, you can visit the council website here.