There are no current plans to close libraries in Powys, a council chief has said.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Economy, Residents and Communities scrutiny meeting on 6 November, councillors discussed a report which looked at the impact of delivered budget savings that had to be found in the 2024/2025 by several departments at the council, including “Community Wellbeing.”

Community Wellbeing looks after libraries, leisure and cultural services in the county, and delivered just under £1.4m in savings last year from the overall council expectation of £12.9m.

Of this sum, £1.1m was set aside to be given to Freedom Leisure to deal with the rising utility cost of running leisure centres and heating swimming pools – but this money was not required and became a saving.

The report said that the service had also looked at reducing library provision.

But this had been discounted as the council was “not at a stage” to “identify” how this could be done – the document showed that £34,500 had been found from elsewhere to cover this saving proposal.

Senior Manager of Community and Wellbeing, Jenny Ashton said: “The Library Service very successfully had a number of grants that helped support different aspects of delivering this service.

“We are delivering within budget at the moment and are working with other services and officers as part of the ‘Sustainable Powys’ programme.”

Sustainable Powys is the umbrella term used by the council to describe potential cost-cutting projects which is supposed to see council services reduced and centred on Brecon, Llandrindod Wells, Newtown, Welshpool and Ystradgynlais.

Ms Ashton said: “In terms of the vision, the Library Service will continue as it is.

“Over time we will look at how those facilities and services can be best delivered to meet the needs of Powys people.”