Essex will become “home of one of the largest networks of community-run libraries in the country” under plans set to be formalised.

Essex County Council has said a significant decline in library usage over recent years has forced its hand into “reimagining” the service, by moving to make it led by communities.

The scale of the drop in library usage has been at the front of the council’s argument for change.

Over the 10 years prior to 2018/19, book borrowing more than halved, down from 8.4million loans a year to 3.9 million, demand to use public network computers in libraries fell 38 per cent, from 805,000 sessions to 495,000 sessions and the number of active library members (who have used their library card for any purpose in the last year) fell 33 per cent from 331,482 in March 2009 to 221,640 in March 2019.

Visits fell by 43 per cent from 7.9million visits to 4.5million a year in 2018/19.

However its library stock fell by nearly half a million books in a decade, separate figures reveal.

The number of books in Essex declined from 1.76 million to 1.29 million between 2007-08 and 2017-18 – a drop of 27 per cent.

Save Our Libraries Essex, which obtained the statistics, said Essex County Council was “setting the library service up to fail”.

Springfield has bucked the downward trend in usage.

This volunteer-run library opened in 2013 and has seen its membership grow by 216 per cent from 382 to 825; the number of loans has held steady at nearly 47,000 a year.

In response to the decline, the council is looking to invest £3 million to allow the local community develop the services alongside other facilities in a way that suits that community.

A statement to cabinet said there is a risk that some users of libraries may not wish to use a community-run libraries,  but this risk is small, given the experience at Springfield.

“The council remains open to new expressions of interest and will work with the interested groups to help implement these new community-run libraries,” said the statement.

“The level of community interest suggests that Essex could be the home of one of the largest networks of community-run libraries in the country.

“As a result of this strong interest in providing community-run libraries, the strategy proposes to offer a package of support to organisations which wish to take over the running of library services in any current library location.”

The support offered to organisations wishing to take responsibility for community-run library services includes a grant of £18,000, paid over three years to help meet costs for furniture/furnishings, property, additional stock and computers, internet access and software.

The county council has admitted that after that period community-led libraries will no longer receive support and could fail.

A statement to cabinet adds: “There is a risk that a community-run library organisation will cease to operate or not prove possible to develop in some locations.

“However, such libraries have proved very successful elsewhere. The support offered aims to help the libraries become sustainable quickly and the fact that almost 3,000 residents indicated a preparedness to volunteer suggests that this risk is low.”