To think wanting to close almost all the libraries in a county is not acceptable?

[WhirlwindHugs]

www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/28/northamptonshire-may-close-up-to-28-of-its-36-libraries

The basic gist is Northamptonshire County Council is in a huge financial mess so it wants to close 21-28 out of 36 libraries. Including the children's centres that run from those buildings.

Obviously libraries did not cause NCC woes and closing them isn't going to save that much money.

AIBU to think NCC are utterly shortsighted?

they even banned the local cat!

The local cat?

*If Council services are being reduced, having fewer councillors..."

Councillors get paid fuck-all, so reducing their numbers isn't going to help much.

Always annoyed by the posters who believe in money trees. The poster who suggested cutting the number of councillors to fund libraries. Councillors do not get paid (just expenses). Our local parties struggle to recruit candidates to stand as potential candidates because of the financial cost to them. Many councillors are retired because they are the only people who can afford to do the job for no money.
Exactly where do these posters think extra money comes from? I love our libraries. They are brilliant. However, I can see that schools, social care, roads must be funded.
It must be nice to live in a world where you believe there is endless money for the taking and it is just meanies who want to close libraries to fund essential services.

Libraries provide lots of wonderful services for both adults and children but if we are going to be honest most people who make use of them can afford to go without and those who stand to benefit most are the least likely to use them.

Sadly, this is so true. It's like everything, they are used by the people who least need them. We haven't been to our local library in over two years as we have so many books already at home.

The Tories have taken out 40% out of local authorities. They are on their knees.

This is key. And so true!

They say they believe in wealth trickling down from the rich (it doesn't), but the cuts flooding down are killing economic growth.

Look at the budget forecast! Decades more of continued Tory failure.

And in the face of it they take away books.

but they're not a service the local authority is legally obligated to provide

Yes they are LA’s have a statutory obligation to provide a “comprehensive library service”

Yanbu. I'd be happy to pay more council tax to keep them open.

Our council isn't cutting libraries, they're cutting tip opening times instead and wondering why fly tipping is increasing.

@BrizzleDrizzle can you not see that your experience disproves your point? You haven't been to the library in two years because you have so many books, and don't need access to their computer, job club, food bank, children's centre.

Okay, I believe you, but you clearly aren't 'those most in need' and you have no idea who does go because you haven't been in in two years!

I am in my library all the time and people who genuinely need it are also.

I don't disagree that budgets are very tight but that doesn't believe I mean I believe in magic money trees. We could just stay in the EU, improve our economy and save £57bil.

Northamptonshire CC has been too focused on keeping council tax low and not planning for the future and that is a problem for us too locally.

It's worse than budgets being tight. Local authorities are on their knees. In London, LAs have had to cope with a 63% cut in government funding over the last 10years. At the same time demand is through the roof- not just in adult social care, also massively rising homelessness because of welfare changes.

I wouldn't be surprised if many councils found themselves unable to set a balanced budget this year and had to have the government step in.

I think it is likely that NCC won't balance the books this year. They had a LGA review last month that said so!

I do also blame central government for cutting CC budgets so much. The idea that County councils should be self funding is nice, but I have seen no evidence that it's achievable in average areas.

No-one believes in ;magic money trees'
What a ridiculous and snide comment to make.

But it is utterly shortsighted to be closing local libraries when they provide such a valuable service for so many people as evidenced by PP experiences.

And anyway, there is always a magic money tree with the Tories when they need to sling a bung at the DUP or a few billion to pay for Cameron's muck up over Brexit

*Okay, I believe you, but you clearly aren't 'those most in need' and you have no idea who does go because you haven't been in in two years!

I am in my library all the time and people who genuinely need it are also.*

That's good that they use it - our libraries here are only libraries and aren't access points for the children's centre, food bank or anything else as they are 'just' libraries. Whenever I have been in in the past (which was a lot when my teens were primary age) it was all the same middle class Boden wearing Mums.

Don't get me wrong, I am strongly against the closure of libraries but the demographic when I used to go in weekly at random times was nowhere near the (what some describe as) working classes that need the facility.

Our libraries are busy. I'm in a wealthy area and will see small children and the elderly reading a newspaper, children studying and some people who look homeless. Libraries are like early years programs - cut them and your problems and disadvantage down the track increase. But it's hard to measure what didn't happen so they will be cut. And people will be more lonely and students will do less well and have less successful results and career paths.

I think it's the imbalance across the country that is the problem too...closures in some counties yet we have just had a very costly refurbishment of our local small town library and no closures in the area. Seems terribly unfair. Libraries are so much more than books.

@Leeds2 I would encourage everyone who is concerned about closure/reduced hours of their local library to go along and use it!

This x 1000. All the handwringing in the world won't change a thing if people don't actually use resources like this. I love my library (in fact I go to the one in the next door town as it is so much nicer and friendlier than my local one). Support from users has meant that all the branches stayed open despite a fancy external consultant coming in and recommending closure/reduced hours.

(A very funny moment at the otherwise quite angry public meeting when an attendee pointed out that the tens of thousands of pounds the consultant had just written down as projected savings for her amazing work was equal to the fee she had been paid!)

can live with having to take our binbags to the dump once a week

Do you think that people without their own cars or with disabilities could live with that?

No one uses libraries any more

In about an hour we’re going to rhyme time at the library and to take our books back and get more out. Our library is no longer council run, it’s run by a charitable trust. They are amazing, they do adult education, youth centre and children’s stuff alongside the usual library service. It’s used by many in our village. We tend to go a couple of times a week and help out where we can as it’s so valuable,

Magic money tree referred to the poster who suggested cutting councillors (who don't get paid) as a way of saving money. I am totally opposed to Brexit and to closing Libraries but I can see that suggestions that we stop the bin service and visit the tip ourselves as a way of saving money, is not going to work. There is a limited amount of money. Fact

I know a fair number of poor people who go to the library to use the internet for essential stuff like applying for jobs, making benefit claims and the like.

Councillors get allowances, so it is not officially a wage, but they do get paid.

Councils do not have to be responsible for the upkeep of parks, people assume they do but they don't. I wonder what is left to cut where I live. They have closed most of the swimming pools and are trying to sell of cultural buildings. Our council forgot to put forward their books this year, this is probably because they are in so much shit they don't want the auditors to see. It's really sad.

Its like Thatcher times again when lots of parks went very downhill with only very basic maintenance happening.

Libraries are a statutory requirement -
'Libraries as a statutory service. Local authorities have a statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 'to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons' in the area that want to make use of it (section 7).'

In our authority librarians deliver Universal Credit application support, 1-1 computer help, wellbeing activities, children's activities, digital inclusion activities such as coding clubs. The job centres have no public access computers so send people to the library. The district council have no public access computers so send people to the library. For many children I come into contact with a library book is the only book they have aside from their school reading books.
I'm a children's librarian and passionate about keeping libraries but understand the position local authorities are in. A volunteer run library could be a better option than no library but long term I'm not sure they are sustainable. Perhaps corporate sponsorship is an option, it worked for Bookstart with Sainsbury's but it's only a temporary option. It's a sad and changing time but definitely would say - use it or lose it!

Sadly volunteer libraries are probably only sustainable in leafy areas that do not need them.

What use in the modern day are libraries?

Oh, how the other half live!

Have you ever tried applying for benefits to keep body and soul together when you have to apply online and don't have internet access?

Have you ever tried looking for and applying for jobs without internet access?

Just to be clear, nor have I. I have the privilege of a good education, a good career, and financial security. But I am not so naïve as to think everyone else is in the same boat as I am. Also just to be clear, my username is a good indication of my career, but public library cuts will have absolutely no impact whatsoever on my career. It is not through self-interest that I don't wish to see libraries closed.

Libraries are the one place where the population can go to educate themselves free of charge, whatever their educational and financial situation. Given we live in a democracy, it is vital that people have access to information. An uninformed population cannot make informed decisions.