Library cuts survey could be challenged in the High Court

Published: 17th March, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

A LEGAL challenge over a questionnaire asking for views on the future of Camden’s libraries is being prepared, a packed meeting at the Heath branch in Keats Grove heard last night (Wednesday).

The Friends of Heath Library in Hampstead hosted the event to discuss possible alternatives to  cuts of up to £2 million planned for Camden’s  library service.

The meeting saw more than 100 people share views on how to answer the consultation prepared by the Town Hall to decide where the axe should fall.  They agreed to seek legal advice as to whether the questionnaire would stand up to a judicial review. 

Chaired by former Camden Public Library User Group chairwoman Helen Marcus, heard suggestions from the floor as to what the alternatives could be.

Camden Public Library User Group (C-Plug) chairman Alan Templeton said: “We may have to take this to a judicial review. It is obvious the Town Hall have made mistakes.” 

He added that because the questionnaire could be filled in multiple times by one person – it asks only for a postcode and no other details – meaning it could be open to abuse. 

Mr Templeton added: “The Town Hall is always making these mistakes and it is about time some one stood up and stopped them.”

Helen Marcus, one of Mr Templeton’s C-Plug predecessors, said she wanted independent accountants to  scrutinise the Town Hall’s claims that the library budget needed to make such large savings. She said: “They have a turnover of £1 billion and we are being told libraries must close to save £1.6 m. That is not even peanuts. We have also been told that the council has lost 10 per cent of its overall budget. Yet the figures for libraries show the service is being asked to save 25 per cent. Why is this?”

She went on to query whether staff pay levels could be slashed  to free up the funds needed to keep all of Camden’s 11 libraries open.

Other suggestions from the floor included handing over libraries to volunteers or trusts to run, combining services with neighbouring boroughs, reducing opening hours until finances were in better shape, cutting other council services such as dustbin collections, charging a 50p entry fee, and dipping in to council reserves to keep the libraries at current levels for a year until alternatives to closures could be found. Another library user added she felt that well-off pensioners should offer to pay £50 a year for their public transport Freedom Pass – to free up more cash for libraries. 

The Town Hall is bracing itself a flurry of alternative questionnaires, being distributed by the C-Plug, to supplement the official form. 

C-Plug say the Town Hall consultation does not offer enough options.

Mr Templeton put the questions together with the help of C-Plug’s managing committee and says he will collate the answers himself. 

Mr Templeton added: “This extra survey is necessary because we do not think the council one is thorough enough.”

Library chief Labour councillor Tulip Siddiq said: “There is no escaping the fact that local government budgets have been savagely cut.

“We have had over 3,000 forms returned to us so far and question four gives people the chance to express innovative ideas as to how to provide the library service in this financial climate.”

Unison convener Philip Lewis said he believed the consultation form was flawed: “I’d like to see an option that says: none of the above.”

He added while there were calls for “backroom” savings, the service had already been cut to the bone. He said: “Libraries have been under constant review for a number of years. Our staff are already stretched.”