Mobile Library Consultation on Whether to Discontinue Long Running Service

Barnet Council has opened a consultation on the future of the borough’s mobile library. The service visits Sussex Ring every Thursday and has done for as long as anyone can remember.

The council is under pressure to reduce costs across the board and they need to find £250,000 from their £3.9 million annual library budget. Of course, the mobile library itself doesn’t cost a quarter of a million pounds a year to run, so as well as ending this service they’re considering whether stop purchasing hard copy newspapers for the libraries and also slightly reduce the self-service opening hours at some of the libraries.

The Mobile Library Service may be a local institution, but the number of people using it has dwindled over the past few years, with just 188 users across the whole borough taking advantage of the service in the last 12 months.

If they do decide to close the service, it would mean that your nearest library is likely to be either;

North Finchley Library, Ravensdale Avenue - just to the left hand side of Sainsbury’s

Finchley Church End Library - Just south of Finchley Central, next to the Little Waitrose

You can take part in the consultation by clicking on the following link: http://www.engage.barnet.gov.uk/

The survey is open until the 20th april 2025