Posted on Wednesday 19th February 2025
Victoria Wilson, pictured, is delighted with the extra £5 million investment for libraries.
Millions of pounds will be spent on modernising Staffordshire’s libraries over the next five years.
Around £4 million will be allocated to 10 town centre libraries run directly by Staffordshire County Council and all 27 Community Managed Libraries (CMLs) will also share in a £1 million fund.
All the money will be spent on refurbishing and improving the public areas.
Victoria Wilson, Staffordshire County Council’s Cabinet member for Communities and Culture, said:
Our 43 libraries are cornerstones of their communities, which is why we have always maintained, invested in and renewed them.
Not only they are a place of learning, enjoyment and study, but a place where people can come together to meet, or to access other services.
We know how much they are valued, so I am delighted that we are able to invest in all the county council-managed libraries that have not been refurbished in recent years.”
In the last decade the county council has opened new libraries in Newcastle, Stafford, Codsall and Lichfield, while completely refurbishing Burton and Tamworth.
Now the 10 other libraries run directly by Staffordshire County Council, including Leek, Wombourne, Stone, Biddulph, Perton, Kidsgrove, Burntwood, Rugeley, Uttoxeter and Cannock are in line for investment.
In each area users will be asked how they use their library and what they want it to look like.
Libraries also contain dedicated children’s areas, free wifi and access to the internet, as well as space for people to work on their own devices, access business start-up advice and dozens of other services.
Improvement money has also been set aside for all the Community Managed Libraries to apply for.
Staffordshire’s CML approach is regarded as among the most successful in the country.
The county council provides practical support such as covering agreed costs, underwriting building maintenance, providing wifi and book stock, so management groups can focus on delivering what their communities want – with the help of a dedicated council support officer.
Over the last decade Staffordshire’s CMLs have won hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of grants unavailable to local authorities, distributed thousands of testing kits during the pandemic and expanded to be community bases for dozens of local volunteer services.
Public response to current investment has been up across the entire service: in the 12 months ending January 2025 loan issues were up 15 per cent at 1,994,632; while volunteers committed nearly 82,000 hours, an increase of 12 per cent.