News:Public libraries

Government promises action on cuts

The Government has stated that it is prepared to get tough on local authorities who could be failing in their obligation as stated in the 1964 Act to provide a 'comprehensive and efficient' public library service.

Unveiling a report on the first -ever annual library plans, Culture Secretary Chris Smith said that the Government would be investigating the 'small minority of authorities currently contemplating unacceptable cuts in services'.

Fifteen local authorities will be asked to carry out more work on their plans, and six other councils will be receiving written warnings, asking them to review their planned levels of funding. If satisfactory responses are not received those authorities will face detailed investigation.

In a letter to authorities, Mr Smith said: 'Recent press speculation has suggested that many local authorities are proposing cuts in their public library services. At a time when the Government has provided the best local authority financial settlement for seven years, unjustified cuts to library services are simply not acceptable.'

Mr Smith also referred to working 'with the Library Association, and others, to establish a recognised set of benchmarks, allowing the government to make a more systematic assessment of library authority performance'.

The comments come against a backdrop of threatened closures which could see 50 libraries across the country closing their doors for good. In London alone more than 20 libraries may close, as 15 of the 33 boroughs consider severe cuts - and similar discussions are taking place around the country.

London library services which may be affected include Islington and Lambeth, which could both lose five libraries, and Brent, Camden and Haringey, which could each lose four libraries.

In Lambeth, Environment Chair Toren Smith is unusually candid: 'Let's be honest about it - Lambeth has the worst libraries in Britain.'

The council is seeking to turn five remaining libraries into 'centres of excellence' - perhaps even with 24-hour opening - at the expense of closing the five other libraries.

Possibilities for the centres of excellence include: making libraries the first stop for a range of council services; refurbishment up to a new 'Modern Library' benchmark standard by adapting 'the Waterstones approach' to presentation; a sustained programme to introduce IT; 24-hour and Sunday opening to earn the title for one of the borough's libraries 'each week - the longest opening hours in the UK'.

Centres of excellence

The council has undertaken a consultation exercise which aims to 'explain the positive reasons for the Council to pursue a centres of excellence policy'. As part of it a colourful brochure has been delivered to all 120,000 households in the borough which seeks to find out what improvements would be popular and how the council can help regular users of the libraries set to close.

Despite the Environment Committee's December decision to adopt the report 'Developing a Modernised Library Service', which says that phased closures are inevitable if the centres of excellence policy is followed, a council source said that the final decision on closures would only take place at a 22 February committee meeting, which will look at an analysis of feedback.

Nine council-organised public meetings have also taken place and the public have been invited to arrange individual meetings with Frank Quigg, Director of Environmental Services.

'The bulk of respondents are not saying don't carry out the closures,' commented Library Services Manager Carol Holmes. 'This is not a cuts-driven exercise - the council is committed to spending £3.5 m on the bookfund, so it is not going to be cut for five years. We are not reducing staff. 'We cannot actually sustain the number of libraries we've got and make improvements to them,' she claimed.

In the London Borough of Merton three of the nine libraries may close, to fund improvements elsewhere in the service.

'A smaller building base could mean a significant amount transferred to another part of the service,' said Assistant Director of Community Services Robert Hobbs. 'All money would be reinvested in improving our work through outreach and libraries' contribution to lifelong learning and economic regeneration.

Surrey - which faces cuts of £1.2 m - is to decide on 24 March whether to concentrate on providing a 'core of bigger libraries' by closing branches. Potential targets include 18 of its 52 libraries which issue fewer than 2,000 books a week, or even half the libraries which are open for less than 30 hours a week.

According to the council: 'There are 25 "natural" communities in Surrey. Clearly a comprehensive public library service would offer a library in each one of them. That is markedly fewer than the present 52.'

The present system is a legacy of a time when communities were smaller and more cohesive, the council suggests.

In Barnsley, where 21 of 23 libraries were threatened, the council has finally decided to close eight - although two may be partly transferred into the Community Resource Centre. The central library will now be closed all day on Thursday.

Durham Libraries Director Patrick Conway, who is collecting responses on library cuts nationally for the Society of Chief Librarians, said the position nationally may in fact turn out to be better than expected.

'From the evidence so far the situation is actually encouraging - it's more stable than previous years. But there are still lots of pockets of local problems. Some London authorities have done badly this year in the rate support grant.' He warned, however, that the government has stressed that this will be the first of a three-year settlement, with budgetary parameters fixed for that period.

'The library sector has got some hard work to do in the next three months because of this change.'

Earlier in the month, Arts Minister Alan Howarth , used the first-ever House of Commons Adjournment Debate on libraries to speak out against the closures.

'The government can see no justification whatever for cutting library services in the present financial climate,' he told MPs, who had stayed till late in the evening on 2 February.

The debate was called by Derek Wyatt MP (Lab), a member of the All-Party Group on Libraries, who contrasted past closures, and recent reports of further cuts, with the government's commitment to the People's Network.

'If we are serious about libraries, he said, 'they should be funded centrally.'

© The Library Association
Last updated: 22 February 1999