BIG increases in some library charges and a 50 per cent rise in the cost of entrance for Gawthorpe Hall have been condemned.

Lancashire County Council’s ruling cabinet agreed to the new fees last week. The rises across the authority’s libraries, museums and archives service include the cost of book reservations going up from 60p to 75p per item, the fine for late returns rising from 15p a day to 20p per day up to a maximum of £6, and the commission on arts and crafts sales rising from 20 per cent to 35.

The entrance fees for Padiham’s historic Gawthorpe Hall will rise from £4 to £6 for adults and £3 to £5 for concessions including students, the disabled and visitors aged 60 and over. Children’s entrance will remain free.

The authority’s Opposition leader Cllr Azhar Ali and his Labour colleague Mark Townsend, leader of Burnley council, have criticised the rises for hitting library users and deprived families. 

They say they are the consequence of government funding cuts and the new county council Conservative leadership’s decision to reopen 16 libraries earmarked for closure by the previous Labour administration. Cllr Peter Buckley, cabinet member for cultural services, said reservation fees had not increased since 2005 and fines since 2012, adding that charges for the museums’ service were last reviewed in 2013.

Cllr Ali said: “The county should be asking the government for more money not penalising the poor with charge increases to pay for their vanity project of reopening libraries.

“The Tory administration at County Hall should not be penalising people with extra costs to visit Gawthorpe Hall, one of the jewels in Lancashire and the nation’s cultural crown.”

Cllr Townsend said: “I sympathise with the county having to balance the books in the face of government cuts but we should not be penalising people for using our libraries. The big increase in charges for Gawthorpe Hall will put visiting it out of the reach of deprived families.”

Cllr Buckley said: “We hadn’t increased these charges for a while, and although we would prefer not to have to, this situation had to be addressed. It was agreed that we couldn’t continue to absorb these costs. The increases are consistent with those introduced by other councils.”

He added: “Although charges are never popular, this decision was necessary in order to reduce the pressure on the council’s finances and help to meet our priority of continuing to protect services for our most vulnerable people.” The cost of copying and posting probate records from the archives will also increase.