Here’s when library fines for overdue books will be reintroduced across West Sussex

It is also encouraging anyone who needs to return items that are already overdue to do so before Thursday March 31 ahead of the charges being reintroduced.

Any overdue items returned from April 1 will be charged a fee from the date they became overdue.

Overdue fees and charges for reserving items were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic. With services and opening times now returned to normal, the county council says it is now easier to collect and return items.

Library loans can be renewed online, and many libraries have a facility for people to drop items off even when the library is closed.

Duncan Crow, cabinet member for community support, fire and rescue, said: “During the pandemic, our priority has been the wellbeing and safety of our residents across the county and to support this, libraries removed all charges and kept this in place to make sure that no one felt pressured to come out to their local library when they did not feel comfortable to do so.

“Now that the government has published their plan for living with the virus, we have reached a point where we also need to go back to normal ways of working and part of that is to reintroduce library charges.

“Any charges that are paid are reinvested straight back into libraries which continues to make them the fantastic community spaces that more and more of us are getting to know and love on a daily basis.”

For a full list of library charges and loan periods, visit www.westsussex.gov.uk and search for ‘library charges’. If anyone has any concerns about returning overdue items, they can contact your local library.

For more information about West Sussex Library Service, visit www.westsussex.gov.uk/libraries