FORMAL challenges to Suffolk County Council's takeover of the libraries' service have been rejected.

Suffolk County Council agreed last week to take over the libraries' service for the first time since 2012, when it was surrendered to Suffolk Libraries due to austerity cuts.

The decision, which followed a breakdown of talks between the two parties, caused significant local uproar with a petition calling for the takeover to be abandoned reaching more than 23,000 signatures.

Following last week's meeting, two 'call-in' requests were submitted by the Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent (GLI) group as well as the Labour group — both have now been rejected.

Call-ins are formal challenges to council decisions which need to be approved by the authority's monitoring officer.

The two groups argued:

• The existing Suffolk Libraries contract could have been extended briefly for further tendering to take place.
• The financial costs of taking over the service had not been scoped properly.
• A public consultation should have taken place.
• Full background information was released too late for councillors to challenge it properly.
• Taking the whole service in by June 1 was 'extremely challenging' without a clear action plan.

Cllr Simon Harley, spokesperson for the GLI group, said it was 'disappointing but not surprising' the council had rejected independent scrutiny and accused the authority of ignoring the petition.

He said: "Opposition councillors at the council have no confidence that it will be able to run our library services in any long-term or sustainable way.

"They had an opportunity to listen to the people, step back and think again, but refused to take it."

Cllr Harley added it was unclear whether libraries would remain open once councils 'as we know them' in Suffolk ceased to exist, due to devolution and local government reorganisation.

Cllr Sandy Martin, leader of the Labour group, said it was unclear how the council, which lacked charitable status, could deliver the service for less money than Suffolk Libraries.

He said: "Labour councillors wish all the library staff well and certainly don't want to see our library services cut, but we fear this will end up costing the Suffolk council taxpayer significantly more than retaining the Suffolk Libraries Service contract would have done."

Addressing this, a spokesperson for the county council said the authority would focus on keeping all of Suffolk's 45 libraries open, maintain their opening hours, bringing staff back to the council 'family' and continuing investment in the service.

They said: "The way our cabinet reached the decision to bring Suffolk's libraries back in house has now been thoroughly reviewed.

"This means that any suggestions the decision was not taken properly have been rejected."