Stand up for the libraries

Published: 5 May, 2011

• IN the whole furore over libraries (Labour is more upbeat, April 28) we should remember that it is the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government which is calling the shots by taking between £80million and £100million from Camden’s budget over the next three years. 

This government doesn’t believe libraries, nor indeed any other public service should be in public hands. By cutting public money so dramatically, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are seeking to change the very nature of this country. 

UK public spending is set to fall below that of the USA by 2015. It is right that libraries should be such a battleground, because they are one of the few remaining free public spaces and help to define us culturally in Camden. 

The Labour council is right to stand up for them and stop them being privatised. But over the next two or three years there will be more battles over public services whose loss will have a profound effect on people’s lives, particularly those least able to buy their way out of problems. 

Camden, the council, the people and your newspaper (as it always does) need to stand up and be counted and make sure that our borough continues to provide services for everyone, rich and poor alike.

SALLY GIMSON
Oak Village, NW5

Privatisation?

• FROM the last two issues of New Journal (April 21 & 28), I gather that Councillor Tulip Siddiq and her Labour colleagues have ruled out privatising our public libraries but have not ruled out closing them.

May I remind her that the ultimate privatisation of a public library is to close it: once a library is closed down, it and its site can be sold to a private company for a different use.

ROBERT ILSON
Antrim Road, NW3

Survival fight

• THE lively council meeting on libraries certainly involved some heated political debate, but this should not obscure the fact that important work is being done to prevent library closures in the midst of the government’s £93million cuts to Camden’s finances. 

This won’t be achieved by passing opportunistic motions that ignore the 6,000 responses to Camden’s consultation and seek to refight the battles of the 1990s. 

It would also be wrong to say no savings should be made from the libraries budget – that just means more cuts to services in other areas.

Each library is different and should be treated accordingly. Relocation of some libraries seems inevitable. 

Where local groups want to move towards greater self-governance to ensure libraries survive, this should be facilitated. 

This isn’t the silly idea of the Big Society where the state and community are at loggerheads. Anyone involved in voluntary work in Camden knows that local government is often the bedrock of the sector in terms of finance and support. 

Assuming volunteers can just step in and replace qualified staff is also unrealistic and the council will need to continue to support all libraries as part of any future ‘mixed economy’. 

However, in the face of companies pestering the Town Hall for a slice of the pie and some Tories pressing for what they euphemistically call “partnerships”, Camden Labour is clear that we see no case for handing over these most precious of assets to the private sector. 

CLLR PHIL JONES
Labour, Cantelowes ward