The closure threat to public libraries across Scotland has highlighted a major flaw in the funding of local authorities. Chronic underfunding over the last 14 years, has resulted in a year-on-year hunt around budget time to find services to cuts.

No where is this better illustrated than in the situation around public libraries, that have been seen as soft targets, and those servicing rural and coastal communities are seen as fair game for savings. In urban areas where there may be several library branches within a city or large town it is an issue, but in the rural and coastal towns the nearest library may be several miles away. In cities the nearest branch that may be a bus ride away, in the rural and coastal areas that bus ride may be hours and on limited timetables.

When a library is closed in a rural or coastal locations it is lost forever.

At a business debate on public libraries in Holyrood on the 5^th of February, one contribution by an MSP who had been a local councillor stood out. He noted that when he became a councillor he was subjected to several presentations around funding and budgets.

To quote from the transcript of the meeting; ‘the first week we were there, the chief executive took us all to the side, all us councillors and we had presentation after presentation after presentation that told me they had no money I had to cut budgets there was nothing I could do, and it was all frontline services.

A shocking indictment on how local government operates, and how democratically elected councillors are being treated.

Libraries are the last free, safe civic spaces available to communities. They are havens for those who are seeking to learn and better themselves. Public libraries need to be protected.

Libraries should be seen as an asset to local authorities and not just a cost centre.

In the past, when economic pressures such as the depression of the 1930’s and post WWII period, governments invested in public libraries as a means of sparking regeneration.

Libraries can support businesses; they are a ready source of information for small businesses and start-ups.

Libraries support Job Seekers; some libraries run job clubs and back-to-work programs and offer help with CV’s. This is vital in our rural and coastal areas, for those seeking job opportunities.

Libraries support communities; they provide access to materials to promote self-learning. They are repositories for information on welfare rights and information on health information, which can cut down the need for GP visits and reduce pressure on the local health service provision.

Scotland needs a national library strategy that recognises their importance to local communities and the country as a whole.

The Scottish Government advisors on public libraries, Carnegie UK, has defined a set of strategic aims for libraries, these are:

• promoting reading, literacy and learning
• promoting digital inclusion
• promoting economic wellbeing
• promoting social wellbeing
• promoting culture and creativity

Many councils have engaged in channel shift moving access to their services through online portals. Elderly residents and those on low incomes need the free Wi-Fi and digital access provided by libraries to gain access to their councils’ services.

Local authorities are strapped for cash, budgets must be balanced, every pound spent must be accounted for in revenue, through the block grant, council tax or business rates income. Proposals to close libraries are one-dimensional, focusing on cost, and neglecting the knock-on effects on digital inclusion, social inclusion, mental health wellbeing, education and literacy.

It is time to protect libraries and follow that most basic of liberal value of empowering people to be all they can be by ensuring they have access to the facilities to better themselves.

Aa review of funding local authorities in a manner that fixes the process by removing some of the excesses of political confrontation, returning to the core spirit of localism is badly needed. The pressures produce a balanced budget on a designated date, is fine but it fails to acknowledge the risks of cost increases and unforeseen additional expenses.

We need  change to the local authority funding, to make use of best practices. We need to look outside ourselves at Europe for examples of best practices. A big ask, but let’s start by opening the policy debate on libraries.

Libraries are more than book lending they’re about self-development, digital inclusion and supporting communities. We need to recognise libraries as an asset and not a cost to be cut.

* Les Tarr is a member of Banffshire and Buchan Coast Liberal Democrats.