Campaigners' anger over £1.15 library charge

A campaign group aiming to stop a new library charge from being introduced said people's "viral" response to its petition showed "the anger felt".

Essex County Council said that from Wednesday, a £1.15 fee will apply to all adult library cardholder reservations for physical items.

The authority said the charge would "cover the administrative and transportation costs associated" with taking books out from sites around the county.

Save Our Libraries Essex (SOLE) said the charge would discourage people from using services and had "set our libraries up to fail".

"If the council wanted to find a way to stop people using libraries, and particularly smaller libraries - which they tried to close in 2018-19 - charging users to reserve books is it," a SOLE spokesperson said.

"The decline in use predicted by the two recent surveys shocked even us, and the viral response to our petition reflects the anger felt."

The campaign group said it had gathered more than 1,000 signatures within one day of launching its petition against the charge on Saturday.

SOLE said it would present it to the council after the elections on 7 May.

Essex County Council said it was "absolutely committed to keeping libraries at the heart of communities".

"The proposed reservation fees – which have been adopted by many other libraries in the UK - would only be for adults at a cost of £1.15 per item and would not apply to children's books," a spokesperson said.

"Libraries continue to be an intrinsic part of the services we offer residents, and we have significantly invested in their future, including recent refurbishments at Colchester and Harwich and the new library at Shenfield."

The group said the fee would unfairly penalise users of smaller libraries where there was not sufficient shelf space for stock.

"The £1.15 charge soon adds up when more than one book is reserved," SOLE said.

"It means millions of other people from Thurrock, to Croydon, to Brent, will be able to borrow a book for free from any library in Essex, while people in Essex will be charged £1.15 to reserve the same book."

In 2024, Essex County Council delayed a plan to introduce the charge, saying it did not want to penalise people who made "good use" of the reservation system.

The authority said the new charges would not apply to eBooks or digital audiobooks and would be implemented for all library locations, including the mobile library.

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