A High Court judge has ruled that Gloucestershire County Council's plan to cut library services had not taken into account the needs of disadvantaged groups

Judge McKenna at the Royal Courts of Justice announced today that Gloucestershire County Council’s planned cuts to library services were unlawful.

Last November GCC announced that it would cut funding to library services by around 30 per cent in a bid to save costs.

Ten libraries across the county faced closure, along with eleven Somerset, but all of these will now remain open following the ruling, which follows a three-day judicial review hearing in September.

Groups including Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries worked with legal firm Public Interest Lawyers, arguing that GCC was in breach of its obligation under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 to provide “efficient and comprehensive library service.”

Judge McKenna said GCC had not considered the impact the closures could have on disadvantaged groups such as the elderly and disabled.

GCC must now re-examine its decision on these grounds.

In a statement, the Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries said they were delighted with the outcome.

“The judge’s decision to rule in the claimant’s favour on equality grounds is a real vindication of our campaign, which has long argued that the removal of public library services from the most disadvantaged, deprived and vulnerable members of our community is grossly unfair,” it read.

“We are also pleased to learn that the council have been denied permission to appeal the decision.

“However, as Gloucestershire tax payers we regret the inevitable expense that will now be incurred by the county, and which could have been avoided if only the council had listened to and engaged with service users – they have seriously let their taxpayers and electorate down.

“Over the last year library users and retired professional librarians have repeatedly warned the council that they were in breach of the law, but party politics was always placed before these concerns, which were again and again dismissed.

“Gloucestershire residents should never have had to go through this stressful, upsetting and expensive process and serious questions now also need to be answered by the secretary of state Ed Vaizey.

“We would like to thank supporters of the campaign locally and nationally, and urge all Gloucestershire library users to keep a close eye on the county council’s activities in the coming months to ensure they do their job properly this time round.

“We also need to be vigilant to cuts which may be planned for the future.

“Libraries are more important than ever in times of financial crises, when education costs are rising astronomically and many people are losing their jobs.”

Daniel Carey of Public Interest Lawyers said the ruling should set an important precedent.

“Today’s High Court ruling sends a clear message not only to Gloucestershire and Somerset, but to every council in the country, that catering for the needs of the vulnerable must be at the heart of any decision to cut important services such as libraries,” he said.

“The ‘big society’ cannot be relied upon to justify disenfranchising vulnerable individuals from the services on which they rely.

“I am very pleased for the thousands of residents who have supported this campaign.”

GCC had planned to hand over the running of many of the libraries to community groups in order to keep them open, but this will now be delayed while it reviews its decision.

GCC leader Cllr Mark Hawthorne said this plan could still go ahead.

“We are very disappointed for the community groups who are lined up to take over their services, but our promise to them is that we will continue to work with them on delivering successful community run services,” he said.

“In line with the judge’s ruling, we will be taking this decision again with an open mind but we are confident that our policy on community run libraries is sound.”

GCC chief executive Pete Bungard said cuts were needed to protect essential services.

“We have a priority to protect services for vulnerable people and to do that we have to reduce our spending and that means libraries taking some of the burden," he said.

“In this case, the judge has found in our favour on the 47 year old legislation – it is clear we can reduce our budget and have fewer libraries.

“He was also clear that our consultation was sound and open minded.

“However, the judge found we needed to do more with regards to our responsibilities under the Equalities Act and this is a huge disappointment as we take our duties here extremely seriously.

“With hindsight, we approached this as a transfer to the community rather than a statutory closure where a more thorough approach would have been taken.”