Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests declared.

a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 20^th January 2016

b)  Matters arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 20^th January 2016 were agreed and signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

Report of the Executive Director of People

To consider petitions relating to the Library Service in Coventry. The Councillors supporting the petitions have been invited to the meeting for the consideration of the petition along with the respective petition organisers.

The Cabinet Member for Education considered a report of the Executive Director of People that presented petitions that had been received relating to the Library Services in Coventry and responded to the issues raised.

An e-petition ‘Save the Mobile Library Service in Coventry’, requesting that the Council reconsidered the proposal to close the service, was presented to the Council on 3 December 2015. The e-petition, bearing 16 signatures, organised by an Earlsdon Ward resident and sponsored by Councillor J Birdi, had been subsequently added to by a similarly worded hard copy petition which contained 193 signatures, giving a combined total of 209 signatures. Councillor Birdi along with the petition organiser, Mr G Williams, attended the meeting and spoke in support of the petition.

An e-petition “Save Arena Park Library Community Hub”, bearing 5 signatures, requested that the City Council looked again at the proposed "replacement" of Arena Park Library, fully identified the impact of closing the facility and ensured that any proposed replacement is of a similar size location and retained all of its current facilities and staff. The petition was received by the City Council on 27 January 2016. The petition organiser was unable to attend the meeting.

On 24 November 2016 Cabinet  approved a ‘Connecting Communities’ report that contained a recommendation to hold a period of consultation from 7 December 2015 to 1 February 2016 on a set of ten proposals for changes to some services. These ten proposals would deliver the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) target of £1 million proposed in the original City Centre First Programme (now Connecting Communities) for 2016/17 and exceed this target for a full year effect by an additional £0.2 million. Proposals to achieve a further £3.8 million savings needed for 2017/18 would be developed following engagement and further consultation. The ten proposals which would deliver the saving required for 2016/17 included various proposals for changes to library services in Coventry.

In accordance with the City Council’s procedure for dealing with petitions, those relating to library issues were heard by the Cabinet Member for Education.

The Cabinet Member indicated that he had recently spoken at a Council meeting on the review of library services as part of the Council’s proposals to make savings. He had confirmed that phase 1 was to carry out a review and at that stage there were no proposals to close any library services. He further confirmed that the Council would be exploring all options for future service provision that would require the Authority to ‘do things differently’.

Speaking in support of the mobile library service, Mr Williams requested that the Council did not scrap the mobile library, but instead explore the option of sharing this service with other Local Authorities, similar to the service in Warwickshire and Solihull. This would enable the Council to make savings but also keep the mobile library running. He indicated that cancelling the mobile library would mean that many people, especially in the rural parts of North-West Coventry, would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

Any other items of public business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of public business.