Stop playing politics and work together to save our libraries
SO, what is the price of giving children access to the knowledge and information they need to get on in life?
When it comes to our local libraries currently at risk – around £60,000 a year.
The recent revelation in the Rossendale Free Press that closing several of our local libraries will save such small amounts of money should shock us all.
Up until now, Lancashire County Council has focused its public defence of its cuts on the scale of the overall savings it needs to find.
Between now and 2021, it needs to save around £221m, an eye-watering figure in anyone’s books – and that’s on top of the tens of millions of pounds LCC has already saved.
Lancashire County Council leader Jennifer Mein has been to this neck of the woods to collect petitions from people asking for the centres and libraries to remain open.
She has promised to listen and work with people.
I’m not sure how seriously we should take such a promise, given that she has already led Labour councillors in approving a budget which has put these venues at risk.
It’s rather like promising to diet after eating a whole cake.
LCC does find itself in a tight spot, but it is making its own problems worse in the way it is trying to deal with things.
Recently, it had to admit that £50m of previously allocated savings weren’t going to materialise.
How on earth does an authority get to a place where it finds its sums were out by £50m?
Or, put another way, how many years could Bacup library continue to run if LCC had actually delivered the savings where it was supposed to have done?
Now, more than ever, we need our county councillors to put aside their political differences and work to come up with a solution.
And I think the change in prime minister recently offers such a solution.
Theresa May insisted she wanted a Britain where the haves and have-nots will be more equal, where people from disadvantaged backgrounds get a better start in life, where people overall get treated more fairly.
Opponents may snort in derision but let’s just assume for now it’s a promise which is a sincere one.
So much of that good start in life depends on good quality local council services. Those good quality council services run the risk of being fatally damaged by the huge cuts being imposed by the government, and the lacklustre way they are being handled by LCC (which is paying consult- ants to advise on savings, would you believe!)
The government has already signalled it is going to review how long it takes to clear the country’s deficit, and clearly other major government spending projects are going to be reviewed too.
Councils like LCC shoot themselves in the foot by managing their finances in a less than perfect way – but they still provide services which matter to people.
So my suggestion is that councillors on all sides stop firing pot-shots at each other – either in the council chamber or via letters to local newspapers – and give the new government a push on council spending again.
At the same time, I think LCC needs to have a good look at its savings plans as they stand.
I find it incredible that such small sums could keep public services open, and that such money can’t be found elsewhere.
For our Labour councillors who voted for the budget which could lead to these closures in particular, now is not the time for petitions and rallying community support.
Now is the time to come up with a plan which corrects your earlier voting errors.