A compromise which could see more paid staff kept on at Oxfordshire libraries was last night labelled as ‘crumbs’ by campaigners.

Oxfordshire County Council yesterday announced the scaled-back plans, which will mean all 43 libraries will be at least half staffed by paid employees.

But councillors still have to discuss where a further £714,000 of savings will be made.

The council’s deputy leader David Robertson said 22 core libraries would remain fully staffed by council library employees.

A further 16 other libraries would be staffed by an equal mix of council-employed staff and volunteers, and the remaining five would be manned by two-thirds council workers and one-third volunteers.

This is a change from the plan put out to consultation in May, which proposed that the group of 16 libraries would only be one-third staffed by council employees.

It came after a four-month public consultation which attracted almost 5,000 responses.

Neil Clark campaigned to save Botley Library – one of the 22 core libraries which will retain its staff. He said: “These are trained librarians. It’s not the sort of work that can easily be taken on by volunteers. We welcome this very much.”

But Julia Drown, a campaigner for Old Marston Library, labelled the compromise as just ‘crumbs’.

She said: “I find it bizarre that if the council is insisting on using volunteers, that they are using them in smaller libraries, rather than in the bigger ‘core’ ones where they could be properly supported by fully-trained staff.”

The county council first announced plans to withdraw £2m funding from libraries in 2010. Earlier this year that was changed to £1.7m following the receipt of some government grant money.

The cabinet will meet on December 12, to discuss the current proposals which would save £986,000. Decisions on how to save the remaining £714,000 will be made as part of the next budget-setting process.

Cllr Robertson said: “We have come up with a model which would still see all 43 libraries remain open.

“If approved, it would be up to the community in some areas to come forward and assist with the staffing of some libraries.”