Libraries ‘stand for civic decency and respect’

Published: 21 April, 2011

• UNFORTUNATELY, I will be unable to attend the special full council meeting on April 27 that has been called to debate the future of our libraries in Camden. 

I expect many other councillors will also be on leave in what was otherwise a week virtually free of meetings. So I would like to use this opportunity to make my position, and that of the Green Party, absolutely clear.

We believe that our public libraries are a treasure beyond price. We agree with author Philip Pullman when he says that their existence in our communities “reminds us that there are things above profit, things that profit knows nothing about, things that have the power to baffle the greedy ghost of market fundamentalism, things that stand for civic decency and public respect for imagination and knowledge and the value of simple delight.” 

The council should be seeking to strengthen these libraries to make sure they are used to the full. They should improve them, not close them down.

The Green Party is utterly opposed to the closure or privatisation of any of our local libraries and I would have voted against any such proposal if I were able to attend this meeting, and will do in the future if it comes back to full council.

CLLR MAYA DE SOUZA 
Green Party, Highgate ward