A north-east council has scrapped its mobile library service.
Three vehicles – which for decades took novels, comics and children’s books to readers across Aberdeenshire – were taken over by the NHS during the pandemic, as part of the Covid-19 track and trace service.
Now Aberdeenshire Council has said it has no plans to bring them back. Instead, two electric vehicles will offer a home delivery service.
Local authority bosses said their click and collect and home delivery service “proved extremely popular” during lockdown.
The new services will be provided from a so-called hub library, which will also offer a range of other services.
Banff and district councillor Glen Reynolds said he is hopeful the changes to the service will benefit rural areas.
He said it had the potential to improve the quality on offer from the council.
Mr Reynolds said: “I hope the transition will mean progress and a more focused service from a local community hub, which addresses a very important demand.
“I will certainly do all I can to ensure that the avid readers in our local communities will not be disadvantaged in any way. It is about looking to do things differently, without impacting on the quality of the service. Indeed, with the potential for doing things better.”
Community waits for library to re-open
Meanwhile, a community leader in a north-east village wants its library to reopen.
Brenda King, chairwoman of the Aberchirder and District Community Association, is unhappy that the Main Street building’s doors have yet to reopen, despite lockdown measures largely being lifted.
The former senior library assistant retired last year, and despite leaving the position, she still gets queries from locals including school children.
Mrs King said: “I was senior library assistant at Aberchirder Library until I retired last year. I’ve got quite a keen interest in seeing it continued.
“I can understand where they (the council) are coming from and I worked in the library for nearly 20 years.
“People still come and ask me because there is nobody to ask. Senior school pupils come up to me and say: ‘Why isn’t the library open Mrs King?’
“One asked: ‘I can go to the library at school and I can take books home but my little brother can’t go to the village and get books?’
“All the libraries seem to be forgotten about, and we are struggling because we don’t have public transport. So people can’t get to Banff library, Turriff library or Huntly library.
“People find it hard that they can’t go to their library but they can go to Tesco or to a football match.”
Mrs King also had a message for the council as she pleaded with them to reopen Aberchirder’s library.
She added: “Help us. Listen to us. Understand and find out what the smaller communities need because we seem to be overlooked.”
Council defends end of mobile libraries
A spokesman for Live Life Aberdeenshire said: “As part of the service’s Covid support work our mobile library vans were redeployed as NHS testing stations.
“We recognised an opportunity here to create a more environmentally-sensitive method to deliver our doorstep delivery programme, and in the summer we invested in two electric vans.
“They are smaller and more agile than the previous diesel models, and should provide better access to our more remote and smaller villages. So our ambition has grown to provide not just a delivery service, but a portable source of inspiration, learning and wellbeing through curated book collections, events and staff interaction with isolated groups and individuals.
“We will be looking to develop a new programme in response to the changing needs of our communities, potentially stopping at schools, care homes, community centres and other spaces in the heart of our communities to deliver targeted work.
“In addition, we aspire to fulfil the sustainable development strategic aims highlighted in the new Public Library Strategy.
“The ’20 minute neighbourhood’ ambition could be tested within the context of libraries and culture, bringing sparsely populated communities together by means of a small electric vehicle.”
Earlier this year the local authority announced it would spend almost £300,000 on new materials to help people develop a love of reading.
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