Purpose

Rutland County Council has been offered a
grant to undertake extensive improvement works to the
County’s libraries. This is as a result of bidding to the
Arts Council’s Library Improvement Fund (round 3): Libraries
Improvement Fund (LIF) Round 3 | Arts Council England

We have been offered £359,000 to undertake works at all four
libraries (Oakham, Uppingham, Ketton & Ryhall).

Programme Aims and Outcomes:
Purpose of LIF
LIF is an open-access capital fund targeted at library services
based in England to apply for funding to undertake capital
infrastructure work which will help address historic
under-investment in technology and buildings. The aims of the fund
are to:
- Enable libraries to develop more flexible, more commercial
spaces
- Increase and improve digital access within communities
- Connect libraries to their communities
- Increase potential for transformation
- Increase library use
- Increase sustainability of libraries

Decision

Under the Council’s Constitution (Part
9, Section 6.6), acceptance of grants of this order of value
requires CEO / Leader / PFH Finance / CFO agreement to of the terms
and conditions.

This has been secured via email.

This decision will be reported to Cabinet at the next available
opportunity, as required by the Constitution.

The Terms include the following requirement:
Written confirmation that applicant will operate the building to
provide a
library service, once the works are complete, in line with the time
periods
set out in the Terms and Conditions of the funding agreement [5
years]

Alternative options considered

The alternative option would be to not accept
the grant.

The opportunity to secure external capital funding for public
libraries is very rare and is unlikely to be repeated in the near
future (no further rounds of this funding are currently
planned).

There is no internal budget allocated for maintenance works for
public libraries, and as such this is a vital opportunity to
improve the condition of the Council’s public facing
assets.