NEWS FEATURE Untangling spaghetti elections Library leaders trying to make political connections with elected councillors face an increasingly complex set of obstacles.
ANYONE following the changes taking place with Suf- folk’s libraries last year might think they are due a break after going through significant changes. In June 2025 the outsourced (and popular) library service was taken back in house by the Conservative-led council. Then in March of this year the council found out that Suffolk will be split into three authorities under local government reorganisation. This will probably mean splitting their one- year-old library service into three brand new library services. Two months after learning this, Reform beat the Conserva-
tives to take control of Suffolk in the May elections. Reform’s victory means that it will oversee the set-up of three new coun- cils that will replace the county council they have just won. That will involve running the elections for three ‘shadow’ councils in 2027 and then managing the process that will see them replace the existing council in 2028. And in case that wasn’t enough, in 2028, the people of Suffolk are also expected to elect a new mayor as part of the devolution process. This complexity is not unique to Suffolk.
Spaghetti for everyone? With 46 of the 151 councils that run library services affected by the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) process, versions of these spaghetti elections will not be uncommon. And it’s not just councils. Political complexity is expanding on all fronts. The most obvious evidence being the number of councils with no overall control. Libraries Connected says 50 per cent of the 151 authorities
that currently run a library service are in states of no overall control. Another complexity is what Isobel Hunter, CEO of Librar-
ies Connected, calls “political misalignment” saying that this is “where you can have dif- ferent parties at each level of government. Your MP, your mayor, your county council, and your district could all be led by different parties. This can lead to complexities as well.”.
Officer turnover The list of issues expands again because, mirroring the turmoil on the political side, the professional officers in local councils are showing high turnover rates at the senior level as well. Isobel said: “Talking to heads of library services, very experienced people who have been around for
Viv Hill. 12 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
a long time, they are saying this is the most turbulent period that they’ve operated through.” And like the turnover of staff and loss of experience at the council’s top leadership level, there’s a similar trend among professional librarians: “We’ve seen quite high rates of retire- ment among very experienced library leaders over the past couple of years,” Isobel said. “So while we’ve got a lot of really great leaders, they are less experienced leaders.” At the library level though, the change in leadership can
also come with significant structural change: “When some- one retires or moves, or if there’s a restructure, the library head of service role tends to either shift down the hierarchy, or have other things loaded into it. It means you either get leaders with large portfolios with a diluted library focus, or leaders who are not involved in big strategic discussions.”
Funding and censorship How much does it matter if it’s harder to connect with your political leaders? As Isobel points out: “The big factor affect- ing all libraries is that there isn’t enough money. If you have a supportive cabinet member with a vision for why and how to keep libraries open, staffed and stocked they could make the difference. So, yes, the cabinet member is really key.” Viv Hill, chair of CILIP’s Public and Mobile Libraries Group (PMLG) agrees, adding censorship is a significant new issue: “Political volatility is not new for libraries… for the past 20 years our concerns following council leadership changes usually centred around funding, cuts to staff or opening hours, service funding or library closures. These concerns are still there, especially with so many councils facing the threat of bankruptcy… but the immediate issues we are deal- ing with are more centred on various forms of censorship and how/if censorship is or will be reaching our services.” And whatever the politics, Isobel says the one sure result
is lots more work: “It’s just another thing that makes it hard for libraries to get on with their good work. It can take an
June-July 2026
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