A PLAN to have just one person on duty at some of St Albans' libraries has been called a "health and safety suicide mission".

Hertfordshire County Council is introducing sole working at 14 of its libraries including five in St Albans as part of a cost cutting scheme designed to save £200,000. But the move has been condemned by Unison, the public sector workers's union, which says the council is endangering staff at the libraries.

Mr Steve Thornley, secretary of Unison's Hertfordshire branch, said: "We have tried to appeal to the better sense of county councillors but to no avail.

"There appears to be no other reason for this action other than to follow the suggestions made by Government Best Value inspectors who, by the way, gave the county council an 'excellent' mark.

"It is becoming clear that for the authority to maintain its 'excellent' status it has to make decisions detrimental to both the workforce and, in this case, the library service.

"We believe that the council is sending its staff our members on a health and safety suicide mission."

The five libraries affected in St Albans are Cunningham, Fleetville, London Colney, Redbourn and Wheathampstead.

They are described as the smallest and least heavily used in the district.

A spokesman for the council said a full risk assessment would be undertaken before the scheme begins in April. She added that additional security measures would be introduced where necessary.

And the spokesman also claimed that the move would not involve any compulsory redundancies.

She said: "Staff will be offered redeployment and or retraining where necessary within the service as well as the opportunity to apply for new posts."

The move comes in the wake of a Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) which reviewed the costs at Hertfordshire's libraries.

The spokesman said: "Although commenting favourably on many aspects of Hertfordshire's library service it was noted in the CPA that the county is one of the few authorities which has double staffing on all service points, even the very smallest.

"These changes are designed to move the emphasis of library spending further towards better service through improved materials, reduced fines and longer opening hours."