Suffolk County Council has decided to bring all its libraries back under direct control from June 2025, it announced this week.
The council said it was committing to keeping all 45 libraries open, maintaining opening hours, investing £200,000 in replacing Suffolk’s aging mobile libraries and a further £157,000 for new books and to replace public computers in libraries across the county.
The decision still needs to be approved by the cabinet on 18 March.
Suffolk Libraries IPC, the charity with the current £6.6m a year contract for library provision, had been planning slashing opening hours by 30%.
But the council sounded the alarm over its high head office spend, accounting for a third (33%) of its staffing budget.
UNISON Suffolk County branch secretary Neil Bland said: “This is fantastic news for library staff, users and residents across Suffolk.
“Library staff warned at the time that this outsourcing experiment was bound to end in failure. Sure enough, senior managers decided they needed to slash services to keep paying for their own positions.
“Now libraries are heading back where they belong, budgets can be spent on front line services to ensure these spaces are central to their local communities.
“The council has signalled this intention with a £350,000 investment package for books and mobile libraries and commitment to keep all 45 libraries open at their current hours.”