By GEMMA BROWN gemma.brown@hexham-courant.co.uk

Published at 09:52, Friday, 03 April 2009

A PLAN to combine Corbridge library and tourist information centre, which villagers have branded a “downgrading” of the service, is set to save Northumberland County Council £20,000 a year.

A £50,000 investment package to move the library from the first floor to the ground floor of the existing premises on Hill Street, where it will be combined with the tourist information centre, was revealed early last month.

But news that not only would the library and the centre share the smaller ground floor space, but that both would be run by a band of volunteers, while the number of computers with Internet access would be reduced from four to two, did little to convince residents that the move was good for the village.

At the latest Corbridge Parish Council meeting, where the figures for the changes were revealed within the agenda, members of the public and parish councillors renewed their concern.

Coun. David Walton said: “If anything, our library service should be being improved in this village, not downgraded.”

He explained that with the number of houses that had been built in the village since the 2006 report on how many people used the library, an extra 600 to 700 residents should now be taken into consideration.

Corbridge resident Audrey Graham told the meeting she had been doing some research with the Government Office for the North East and at the university library in Newcastle.

She said: “I understand that, under the 1964 Libraries Act, we all have a statutory right to a comprehensive library service, which meets the needs of the village.”

The meeting also heard that minutes from 2007 showed that the parish council had agreed to spend £400 on a feasibility study, investigating whether the library service could be taken over by the parish council.

However, a completed study had never been brought to the meeting. Councillors agreed to investigate this.

Northumberland County Council said the new arrangement would involve an overall revenue saving of £11,320. Currently Corbridge library had no staffing budget of its own and the £9,161 for staffing currently came from Hexham library’s budget.

Therefore the new arr-angement, run solely by volunteers, would be just over £20,000 cheaper to operate than the existing services.

The changes would mean the library will be accessible for a minimum of 40 hours per week from April to October as opposed to the current opening times of 15 hours per week.

And the tourist information centre would be open for 15 hours per week in the winter, from November to March, for the first time.

A spokesman for North-umberland County Council said: “This was the preferred option rather than accepting closure. Alternatives included community delivery or the provision of a mobile service. At this stage Corbridge Parish Council expressed an interest in running the library.

“Since this time, a plan has been refined to merge the library with the tourist information centre, and to locate both on the ground floor.

“This project will result in efficiency savings, which will fund additional opening hours and better access, and will also make both services more sustainable in the longer term.”

The spokesman added that negotiations were at an advanced stage with a tenant interested in renting the first floor of the building, and that this would further offset the building’s running costs.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk