Nineteen library staff in Devon are at risk of redundancy after Libraries Unlimited, the charity running the county's libraries, made all 18 library supervisor roles redundant — 19 people are affected because one role was a job share.

A new management tier

In place of the supervisor posts, the charity has created nine new library and community manager roles covering several libraries each. They sit alongside three existing centre manager roles, which will also take on more libraries. Libraries Unlimited said the nine new roles were ringfenced for affected staff, and it held other vacant roles which could offer alternatives.

Why the charity says it is restructuring

The charity said there had been no restructure of library staffing since 2012, and libraries and how they are used had changed greatly. It said it was looking for ways to become more resilient to rising costs, having already saved £300,000 from its support teams and more than £100,000 from reviewing contracts. Its 2024/25 report showed income of just over £9.4 million against expenditure of nearly £9.7 million, with staffing nearly two-thirds of spending.

Council funding — and the timing

The move comes months after Devon County Council agreed a £1 million transformation package for libraries, plus £100,000 for books and digital. The council confirmed Libraries Unlimited contacted it before the consultation began, but said employing library staff was the charity's responsibility, not the council's. Councillor Jess Bailey had tried to get the council's scrutiny committee to intervene; instead, an agenda item will be discussed at its November meeting — after the cuts have been made.

Campaigners warned the changes could weaken libraries, with one councillor calling the loss of Ilfracombe's supervisor and front-of-house manager a "huge blow" to the town's Town of Culture bid. Libraries Unlimited said opening hours would be unaffected.

Sources: Kingsbridge Today, Devon library supervisors facing redundancy as role axed, 5 November 2026; Devoncast Radio, Town of Culture bid could suffer from "huge blow" to library, 3 November 2026.