Control of 15 major libraries have been handed over to Greenwich Leisure Limited by Lincolnshire County Council today.
This comes after the Council agreed to handover control of the libraries in December last year.
The not-for-profit group is the largest UK based social charity, and will also handle the online services which cater to those who are unable to reach the library for different reasons.
Peter Bundley, deputy managing director for Greenwich Leisure, has said: “We are hitting the ground running with new plans for a reading garden and teenage library in Lincoln”.
He went on to say that GLL intends to develop the services already provided by Lincolnshire libraries in order to boost library visits.
The Council have previously released control of 30 libraries to volunteers in order to save costs. Today’s action will save the council £500,000.
Councillor Nick Worth, the Council’s Executive Member for Libraries, has said that:”Libraries are much more than just books. We want toe be sure our libraries stay at the heart of their community,and, to do that, they need to change with the times”.
Campaign group Save Lincolnshire Libraries previously called a judicial review in the High Court in July 2014, which the group claimed that the Council had failed to fully investigate the proposed bid from GLL.
The group claim that the County Council believed that GLL would not be able to deliver what they promised, which according to the group has cost the Council a lot of money.
