Closed petition Provide ringfenced funding for local libraries

Closed on 26 December 2023

Libraries across the country are being closed, cut back and/or outsourced to volunteers as a result of government cuts to local authority budgets. Many councils are struggling to keep staffed library services open when faced with the competing demands of social care, child protection etc.

Libraries offer a place for education and opportunity – our libraries are a gateway for many people to access a blue badge, a bus pass, friendships as well as a vital resource for the promotion of reading.

They are a important for the digitally excluded who need to go online to access benefits, health, education and employment resources.

The Government must ringfence funding to ensure councils can fulfil their statutory duty to keep libraries services available to the general public. The Government must ringfence funding to ensure councils can fulfil their statutory duty to keep libraries services available to the general public.