Islington Central Library – the Tribune understands £110,000 was spent on consultants who have drawn up plans to ‘refresh’ the borough’s libraries

POTENTIAL cuts of up to £1million would “devastate” Islington’s libraries, union bosses have warned, as they prepare to “fight back” against the Town Hall’s plans.

The Tribune understands that Islington allocated £110,000 on consultants who have been drawing up plans to “overhaul” and “refresh” the borough’s libraries, which union staff say amounts to cuts of between £500,000 and £1m.

Plans were shared with union chiefs just a month ago, informing them of the cuts which would be the largest in over a decade.

Alan Wylie, Unison’s library rep who has worked in Islington libraries for more than 25 years, said the council’s plans were “dangerous” and their communication “disingenuous”.

Speaking to the Tribune, he said: “The current budget is around £3.9m. They’re talking about potentially cutting more than a quarter of that.

“They haven’t released any specifics yet, but these are certainly significant cuts. And therefore, we’re looking at potential library closures, job losses, and amalgamation of different services, meaning more work for less staff.”

Alan Wylie claims the Town Hall is trying to ‘sneak through’ proposed cuts

Just two weeks ago, staff from two council departments staged a one-day walkout over reorganisation plans in their data teams, after months of unsuccessful consultation processes.

Islington, like other London boroughs, has suffered under the Labour government’s “Fair Funding Review”, which meant that inner London councils’ budgets were slashed. Islington has been forced to make adjustments to its budget to keep up with the funding changes.

Mr Wylie said that unlike the data team reorganisation plans, the Town Hall was trying to “sneak through” the libraries overhaul plans without consulting either the union or public.

“They snuck around and are doing this without any consultation, because they knew if they consulted with us, we would put up a fight about it,” he said.

“We’re not against changes to the libraries, we’re not against a refresh. But we are against cuts, we are against austerity.

“We would have been open to conversations with the council about this, of course, but this was never done.”

Islington Council runs 10 public libraries across the borough, and currently provides the best access to libraries of any local authority in the country.

Unison were involved in a high-profile dispute against the Town Hall in 2011 when they proposed bringing libraries under control of an outsourced trust, to save money. The council eventually rowed back on their plans.

The current set of reorganisation plans were first tabled in September 2025 and are now progressing. Consultants from the firm “the Activist Group” were drafted onto the project and have proposed a move towards a “community hub” model, which would see multiple services amalga­mated under one roof.

Despite being protected under planning law, libraries have been consistently made the target of “salami-slicing” style cuts, Mr Wylie added.

Jane Doolan, Islington Unison’s co-secretary, said the union were “shocked and alarmed” to learn of the proposals from library staff. She said: “The first we heard of it was just a month ago, despite the council signing it off in September 2025. So we were quite shocked about that to be honest.

“We’ve got a partnership agreement with the council, where we are supposed to be completely transparent with each other. But they haven’t been transparent with us, and so this news has come as a complete surprise.”

Ms Doolan said the union are in the early stages of mounting a public campaign against the proposals, and could be “forced into industrial action”, should the council continue to press on with the cuts.

The Town Hall’s planning chief, Councillor James Potts, said: “We are proud to have kept all of our libraries open through more than a decade of significant financial pressures, and our corporate plan includes a commitment to deliver a new library at Vorley Road in Archway.

“We are at a very early stage of developing a new library strategy. The purpose of this work is to understand how libraries can continue to meet changing resident needs, build on their existing strengths and remain sustainable for the future.

“We want staff, trade unions, residents and partners to help shape that future and the engage­ment we have already started will be a key part of this work. Any significant changes that are proposed would be subject to the council’s usual decision-making processes and consulta­tion requirements, and it would be very wrong to present emerging ideas or early financial modelling as agreed proposals.

“Our priority is to gather evidence, listen to those who use and deliver the service, and develop a long-term vision for libraries in Islington.”