York library users speak out against council budget cuts

In the brightly-lit children’s area, young mums and their children are playing on special floor mats.

The bank of computer terminals along one wall of the library are all in use, and just about every table in the busy café is taken.

In a side room, members of a local choir group are rehearsing songs from musicals.

There are books aplenty, of course – and lots of quieter corners where people are sitting reading with their noses buried in a good book.

Mums Silvia Cardoso, left, and Laura Smith with their children Billie and Juno enjoying the play area at Tang Hall Explore (Image: Stephen Lewis)

But the library is about so much more than that, locals say. It is a community hub which brings people together. And library users are horrified at the thought that the city council is considering swinging cuts to the Explore York budget.

Under the cost-saving proposals, the authority’s Labour administration is proposing to trim £300,000 from Explore’s budget in the financial year beginning in April – and then another £300,000 the year after.

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That would see annual revenue funding for York’s library service cut from £2.6 million to just £2 million over the next two years – a cut of 23 per cent.

With another ten years to run on the council’s funding contract for Explore, that £2 annual million budget will then become the new baseline for York library funding for the next decade.

Users worry just what impact such a deep cut might have on their beloved libraries.

The busy café at Tang Hall Explore on Monday morning (Image: Stephen Lewis)

Ian Breffit has been a regular at Tang Hall Explore since the new library opened.

The library building is 'absolutely stunning," he said. But that's not what makes this a great library - it's the staff and volunteers.

Ian Breffit at Tang Hall Explore library (Image: Stephen Lewis)

Ian, himself a library volunteer, says Tang Hall Explore is a 'fantastic community hub'.  There's the café, the computer workstations, the music area. People from a nearby care home come here - as do mums with young children.

All that is possible because of the staff, he says. Yet inevitably, any funding cuts will fall on staff.

The 74-year-old has one message for city councillors: "Don't cut here!"”

Lucy Ruddle, 19, agrees. She works for York community church – and, since she lives nearby, often uses Explore as her workplace. It’s much nicer than working from home, she says.

But she’s also a keen amateur photographer. “And this is a really good space for that, too,” she said.

Lucy Ruddle at Tang Hall Explore: This is a hub for the community (Image: Stephen Lewis)

“When people think of libraries, they think of books. But this is more a hub for the community coming together.

"There are all sorts of different groups that use it. There are activities for children, things for people with learning difficulties – and it is somewhere where people who might otherwise be isolated can come and be part of a community.”

Dila Williams, 39, is a mum of two young children who is completing a Ph.D in political science.

But she often comes here to work on her thesis rather than going into the university. It’s close to where she lives – and more important, it’s a warm, safe place for her children.

Dila Williams at a work space in Tang Hall Explore library (Image: Stephen Lewis)

Libraries like this give so much, she said – they enable people from all backgrounds to live a ‘dignified life’.

If councillors do cut funding, she says, they will be ‘truly diminishing people’s lives’.

“If the council wants to save money, they should cut the number of admin staff who work there,” she said. “We can do with less pen pushers."

Childminder Natasha Forsyth regularly brings the young children she’s looking after to Tang Hall Explore for the storytime sessions.

Natasha Forsyth at Tang Hall Explore: This is such a happy place to be (Image: Stephen Lewis)

News of the proposed budget cuts was, for her, an ‘eye-rolling moment’. “They are cutting everything.”

But libraries like this are hugely important, she said.

“It’s just such a happy place to be. And it’s always really busy, with things for different people. It’s a lifeline.”