Two local libraries have now been permanently closed following opposition from residents.

The Westdene and Hollingbury branches in Brighton stopped functioning on Tuesday.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet officially sanctioned the closures last December.

The decision came after a 12-week consultation exercise conducted between July and October, which sought views on reducing opening times at Jubilee and Hove Libraries and eliminating the Hollingbury, Rottingdean and Westdene branches.

Jubilee Library now operates with five fewer hours each week, with earlier closings on Monday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Hove Library has also shed five hours weekly, shutting its doors earlier on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons.

Local residents staged protests, gathered petitions and expressed objections during committee meetings to try to prevent the closures.

Each branch required between £20,000 and £25,000 annually from the council, a sum many considered insignificant compared to the overall £4.5 million budget allocated for library services across Brighton and Hove.

Councillor Ivan Lyons, who represents Westdene and Hove Park, said local people were devastated that their neighbourhood library had closed without being offered the chance to run a fundraising campaign. The Conservative Group had put forward a sensible proposal with detailed financial backing to keep the library open, covering the annual £20,000 shortfall which represents a tiny fraction of the council’s yearly spending, yet the Labour administration showed no willingness to engage. Shutting the library demonstrated no ambition and would impact schoolchildren at the adjacent Westdene School alongside residents who used it as a community meeting point.

Alicia Buckingham, who led the campaign to save Westdene Library, said she remained distressed by the outcome for the branch, particularly after the intensive efforts to maintain its services, including protests, petitions, formal submissions and navigating an unfamiliar political system. The library had served the community in important ways beyond lending books, acting as a space where people connected and felt supported. She would particularly miss seeing local schoolchildren use the facilities and hoped the school would receive help developing its own resources to address some of the gap. There was cautious optimism as a group of residents had put forward an offer to manage the library as a community-run venue, and she urged the council to support this plan and help give this valuable resource a new purpose for the whole community.

Councillor Alistair McNair, who represents Patcham and Hollingbury, said the Labour council’s choice to close Hollingbury Library, situated within Old Boat Corner Community Centre, one of the city’s most successful community facilities, was profoundly disappointing. Community centre staff and volunteers along with local councillors had worked alongside the council for months to help both the authority and residents through this transition. However, the Labour-controlled council was not simply closing the library but also removing WiFi and computers from the community centre because it no longer wished to meet the modest annual cost of £3,000 that guaranteed digital access for disadvantaged groups. This meant Old Boat Corner now had to fund this service itself, resulting in fewer resources for the many community groups it supports. While the library was closing, the community centre had strong plans for using the space to serve residents, and he was confident it would continue to thrive despite the council’s short-sighted approach.