Swindon Labour and Libraries

Thanks to Shirley Burnham, the Swindon based National Library Campaigner for this little gem of an insight in to the mindset of the majority of Labour Councillors who instead of making a stand and fighting the cuts on behalf of their communities choose to implement them! From: Chris O'Brien (chris.labour@brightwebsolutions.co.uk) on behalf of Chris O'Brien (chris.obrien@southswindonlabour.co.uk)
Sent: 09 February 2013 12:43:20 To: Shirley Burnham (saveoldtownlibrary@live.co.uk) cc: andy.smart@southswindonlabour.co.uk

Hi Shirley,

I've spoken with Jim Grant and he's asked me to forward on the following information to you:

The cuts to the library services are as a result of the cuts being made by the Coalition government centrally which are supported by the Tory and Liberal Democrats locally.

Were Labour in power nationally or locally it is hoped we wouldn't have to make these cuts. However, because of the financial constraints being imposed by central government local government has to make very hard choices about how we spend what little money we have.

Labour will be amending the overall budget by finding additional savings in non essential spending in order to preserve services which have a direct affect on the lives of the vulnerable people of the town. This will not include opposing the cuts to library services.

Labour's long term plan for the library service is to ensure that libraries are contained within community hubs, similar to the Old Town library moving into the Arts centre. Unless this path is followed the future cuts to local government, supported by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, will inevitably mean permanent closure of libraries in Swindon

Council plans to privatise libraries are rejected as “lazy” - InsideCroydon - 09/08/2012

http://insidecroydon.com/2012/08/09/council-plans-to-privatise-libraries-are-rejected-as-lazy/

"The opposition group on Croydon Council has threatened to torpedo the on-going privatisation of the borough’s library service by refusing to commit to continue working with any outside organisations which may win the year-long bidding process to take on the running of libraries in Croydon and Wandsworth."
"Councillor Timothy Godfrey, Croydon Labour’s spokesman on libraries, has rejected the council’s costly outsourcing procurement process, saying, “Privatisation is simply a lazy approach.”

Don't you just love Labour's consistency on these matters, while i welcome their stance in Croydon it seems very odd in light of what their compatriots are proposing in Harrow!

Also it appears that Croydon Labour are proposing the same cooperative libraries vision that Lambeth are so keen on, which has drawn opposition from local campaigners.