MORE than 100 British libraries closed last year, a report has found, but visits to those in Bournemouth and Poole “remain buoyant”.

The annual report by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting discovered that council spending on the service was cut by £66m nationally.

Bournemouth and Poole’s library services merged earlier this year in a bid to save both councils £566,000 by 2019/20.

The move has prevented library closures, with no reductions to library opening hours for the joint service.

Library staff in Bournemouth transferred employment to Borough of Poole, which is now the lead authority for the service.

However, ownership of assets, books and library buildings has not changed.

Nationally, staff numbers were down by five per cent on last year, and the number of visits declined by three per cent - making a 14 per cent decline over the last five years.

Almost 193 million books were issued in 2016-17, down 6.3 per cent on the previous year, and down 25.1 per cent over the last five years. Around 16.4 million audio, visual, electronic and other materials were issued, down two per cent on last year and 15.4 per cent over the last five year.

Adult fiction remains the popular book type issued by libraries, followed by children’s fiction.

Councillor Pat Oakley, portfolio holder for tourism, leisure & the arts at Bournemouth Borough Council and Councillor Mohan Iyengar, cabinet portfolio holder for libraries and culture at Borough of Poole said: “Bournemouth and Poole libraries came together as a joint service with combined staff in September 2017. Initial savings have been identified and achieved through a new shared consistent staff structure. There are no library closures and no reductions to library opening hours for the joint service.

“Library loans and visitors remain buoyant with 1.6 million visits in person to Bournemouth and Poole libraries annually, 626 thousand virtual visits to the libraries’ web pages and online resources, and 1.5 million items loaned from Bournemouth and Poole libraries. Book and audio visual stock collections are an important service with a total of 485 thousand items for library users to browse and borrow.”

Local authorities have a statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 ‘to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons’ in the area that want to make use of it. However, that doesn’t stop councils from making savings where they can or from proposing ever-new ways to fund and cost-cut the service.

Earlier this year Bournemouth councillor Nick Rose controversially proposed that libraries do more to raise their own funding by becoming hubs for learning and activities - including charging parents for currently free ‘wriggle and rhyme’ sessions.

Cllr Rose proposed moving up to 80 per cent of stock off site to make room for expanded IT equipment, a coffee shop/café and a soundproofed activities area with a projector and other facilities for hire.