COUNCILLORS considered a report assessing the state of the county’s libraries and its impact on the wellbeing of the community – in the year before cabinet members voted to cut the service’s hours by 40%.
Denbighshire’s performance scrutiny committee were asked to consider a report highlighting the library service’s performance against national standards.
The report related to the library service’s performance for the financial year of 2023-24.
The purpose of the report was to provide information to councillors and examine progress made in developing libraries as “places of individual and community well-being and resilience”.
Whilst the report is a statutory Welsh Government requirement, Denbighshire’s cabinet voted to cut library hours in December 2023, a decision implemented in June 2024.

The cabinet made the decision to save £360k per year, despite a public consultation garnering 4,500 responses in which over 90% strongly disagreed with the proposals.
But the scrutiny committee discussed the now outdated and arguably irrelevant report for over 15 minutes.
The meeting’s chairman Cllr Hugh Irving said the debate would be more interesting when the impact of the now reduced hours are considered.
He said: “I think it has been rather short a debate as been mentioned as the really interesting debate we are going to have is the one where we consider the impact or otherwise – there might not be an impact – of the reduced hours, so I think that’s where we will have a lot to look at and consider and hope the service hasn’t been too adversely affected.”
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Huw Hilditch-Roberts, who is not on the committee, added: “The report is retrospective, so it gives the state of the nation of the libraries for the previous years, but it will be very interesting reading to see next year’s report when the reduction in hours across libraries across Denbighshire (came into effect) and the impact on the well-being of residents.
“I haven’t got any solid evidence at present, but the vibe on the street in the local towns is people are missing having a library open, and it is a reason not to come into town, and (it is) obviously affecting footfall.”
The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 sets out the statutory duties of public library authorities to ‘provide a comprehensive and efficient library service’ and makes it a duty of the Welsh Ministers ‘to superintend and promote the improvement’ of public library services.
The report stated that the council met many of its targets in full for 2023/24, relating to support for health and well-being, events with special requirements, up-to-date reading material, Welsh language resources, and, perhaps ironically, opening hours.
Figures contained in the report revealed attendance was up by 25% in 2023/24 for library events.