Fife’s closure-threatened libraries have been granted a further stay of execution to allow the public to have their say.
Fife Council has bowed to pressure to extend a consultation period over plans to shut 16 libraries in a bid to save more than £800,000.
The move follows serious concern that people had not been given enough time to explore alternative cost-cutting options and comes less than a month after the council refused to put the plans on hold.
Taken on the back of fresh legal advice, the U-turn means a final decision on the fate of the libraries will now be made on December 8 rather than at the end of September.
Fife Cultural Trust, which runs the libraries on the council’s behalf, has said it will listen to the public’s views, but made it clear there is no plan B.
It also emerged yesterday that a number of libraries not earmarked for closure could have their opening hours cut.
The revelation was made at a special scrutiny committee at which councillors combed through the detail of the trust’s proposals.
Committee chairwoman Susan Leslie said she welcomed the extension to the consultation process.
“I was not backward about making clear my concerns about it,” she said.
“The public was left in a vacuum not knowing what was going on, and that led to a public perception about the whole thing that was not good.
“There’s a job to be done by the council and the trust to re-establish some trust in the process.”
The trust has proposed that each of Fife’s seven areas will have one main library open 40 hours per week, which will be served by a number of smaller facilities.
In practice this will mean that in the Kirkcaldy area, for example, Kirkcaldy Galleries will be the main library with Burntisland and Templehall opening between 20 and 40 hours per week.
Kinghorn is on the closure list, so a possible reduction in Burntisland’s opening hours was met with some concern.
However, trust chief executive Heather Stuart made it clear: “There is no plan B.
“This is a business under severe pressure and that’s the harsh reality.
“Libraries in particular are a very emotive issue and I don’t put forward these proposals lightly.”
She added: “Without a commitment to deliver £813,000 of savings we could technically become insolvent.”