The council will consider closing Ibstock library permanently

The future of a library service in Leicestershire is to be decided by councilors this week.

Ibstock Community Library has been run by volunteers since 2019, but the site was temporarily closed in March after they resigned.

Leicestershire County Council was looking for another group to take over but said it had been unsuccessful.

The authority will consider a recommendation to permanently close the site on Friday.

If the plan is approved, the council will consider replacing the facility with a mobile library, which has visited weekly since April.

However, according to council documents, it would be a “regular, three-weekly” service.

A report to cabinet said the volunteers who run the library announced in September that the site would close because it “struggled to generate support and, despite its best efforts”, the group felt it was no longer sustainable.

The council said two groups later expressed an interest in taking over, but neither met the authority’s essential criteria.

One group withdrew from the process and the other could not demonstrate financial sustainability, the board said.

Christine Radford, cabinet member for libraries, said: “Reluctantly, given that there is no group capable of taking over the running of the library, the cabinet is being asked to consider the proposal to close the library and put apply an alternative provision. .

“I want to thank the administrators and volunteers at Ibstock for their excellent work over the last few years.

“They did a fantastic job.”