AS REAL Ideas prepared to open the doors at the Liskeard Library on Barras Street, regular users of the library were shocked and saddened to learn that Cornwall Council’s staff would not be working in the newly transformed building. 

Six council employees, who had been working out of a temporary library at Luxstowe House since April 2019,  have been redeployed to libraries in Bodmin and in Callington still run by the local authority. 

Real Ideas has had a base and has been running its programmes in Liskeard since 2013.

It currently has 16 of its staff working from the Library and has created new roles including a 28 hour per week shift supervisor, and customer experience hosts on zero hours contracts – roles which it said anyone could have applied for. 

While the change in staffing has come as a very recent surprise to some, Real Ideas says that ever since Cornwall Council first began the process of devolving Liskeard’s Library, they’ve been clear that their operating model would be completely different. 

Similarly to leisure centres, there is no ongoing revenue funding from a central source: the community interest company (CIC) has to find new ways to make the operation viable. 

The flip side of this is that CICs are in some ways less financially restricted: they’re able to apply for grant funding streams that are not available to local authorities or town and parish councils. 

Unlike leisure centres, though, libraries are currently still a statutory service. The asset transfer of Liskeard Library included an obligation to Real Ideas to enable people access to the library service – for either 25 years, or as long as Cornwall Council says is necessary. 

So how does this work in practice? Cornwall Council is providing the infrastructure – the books, the digital library system, the cards, and the kiosks for checking books in and out. While there may not be as many thousands of books on the shelves to browse, the digital system allows access to a huge county-wide resource of both fiction and non-fiction books, reference sources, and historical documents. Real Ideas staff are trained in how to help people use the technology and access these resources. 

A spokesperson for Real Ideas said: “The devolution agreement was always that Real Ideas would be the employer of all staff in the library. This has never changed. 

“Cornwall Council has redeployed the library staff from Luxstowe House to fill vacancies in other local libraries, ensuring they all remain in their current jobs, with associated pension and other rights.  

“Cornwall Council devolved Liskeard Library to Real Ideas to explore a new model that does not rely on public funding or require an uplift in council tax. This has enabled a £1.5 million capital renovation employing local contractors, extended library opening hours, and a multi-purpose space for a wide range of cultural and other activities 

“Real Ideas currently employs 16 people from the Library building. The roles are varied and multidisciplinary, enabling us to bring in expertise around young people, arts and making, digital and immersive skills, operations, and customer service, to provide a library service and much more. Since we started the programme of renovation and subsequent opening we have created nine more jobs for local people.” 

In a statement, Cornwall Council said that  “after consultation, its six part-time staff had been redeployed elsewhere in the library service” but did not respond as to when this consultation had taken place. 

“Under our service contracts with the individual operators of each of our 24 devolved libraries, each operator employs their own team of staff for each library,” the Council said. 

“Real Ideas and Cornwall Council are working in partnership to continue to deliver a library service in Liskeard. As part of the service contract, Cornwall Council will continue providing books, organising delivery and maintaining the technology which supports all our libraries including free access to public computers.  RIO are responsible for local operation, which includes staffing, managing the building and delivering the service. Library members can use any of our libraries across Cornwall.”