This blog isn’t about the natural world but it is about the political one in which the natural world sits.
As an author I’m quite keen on people reading books – indeed last year I got the huge sum of £77 as my share of the Public Lending Right pot. But the local library is more than a source of income, it is a community hub which my children, when young, used and my mother, not at all young, still uses. I don’t use the library very much but I do now and again.
We live in an age of austerity and so it comes as no surprise that non-essential services are under pressure. There are 36 libraries in Northants and the plan is to close at least 21 of them, including my local library in Raunds. The mobile library will also be shut down. The details are in this consultation which closed yesterday.
Raunds Library, like many others, is a designated Children’s Centre, and as I say, it is a hub for other community events.
It’s tempting to suggest that this is just one of those things – and maybe it is – but here are two contextual pieces of information which appear to have shaped these decisions. First, Northants has a growing population, particularly growing in children and older people, and it appears (I can’t be 100% sure of the truth of this) that Northants is disadvantaged by the existing funding formula. Second, for many years the county council has been Conservative controlled and has prided itself in not increasing the council tax (much if at all). Last week Sajid Javid sent in a task force to look at the books of Northants County Council – a very rare event. So I live in a county where the needs are growing and the money is not increasing, partly because of ‘austerity’ and partly because the Conservative county council has not used its opportunities to tax us all to provide public services for those who need them.
We have been offered the possibility of running a community library but this would actually consist of having to raise £60k pa locally in order to have a mere 2-year stay of execution and then we might well end up in the same position as now. In fact, Northants’ finances are in such poor shape it looks impossible to save my local library and I’d be surprised if there are any library services, outside the big 8 libraries in the county (Northampton, Corby, Daventry, Wellingborough, Towcester, Kettering, Rushden, Weston Favell), which will survive in a few years’ time.
Still, Rushden is only 30 minutes away by bus – in a separate consultation the county council is planning to remove all subsidies from bus servies so that may be a less attractive option in future. Anyway, at least you can renew your library books by email and telephone – except that in another consultation those services are to be withdrawn and only online renewals will be accepted. These changes will very clearly affect those less able to travel, those less able to pay for travel and those less well-equipped with computyer technology.
I’m guessing there will be some houses on the site of my library within just a few years.
The UK is about the 20th-richest per capita country.
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My own view is that libraries and public transport ARE essential services and should be funded accordingly. The irony is that some of those Conservative councillors probably used the library services as children, may still do so or have relatives that do. I think all people should have easy access to books many poorer children have benefited in the past from being able to access libraries. Are the Tories not supposedly in favour of “upward mobility” or was it just the recently resigned Education secretary? Austerity is a construct of government policy, not a necessity, in order that those who caused and benefited from the financial crisis don’t pay the true cost through taxing share deals or their ill gotten gains.
It is happening all over: population increasing; housing estates being driven through planning with *no houses* being built cheap enough for *local* people to buy(!); house prices still increasing; increasing road congestion; trains overcrowded; GP surgeries overloaded; hospitals over-stretched; bus services being cut; libraries closing; mobile libraries disappearing; schools over-stretched; police over-stretched; social services on the edge of collapse; people permanently stressed; online fraud increasing unabated; woods disappearing; Green Belt being squeezed out of existence; farm land disappearing; planning laws being weakened; wildlife being decimated; pollution increasing…
This is the sort of wholly negative, deeply pessimistic comment that we’re all supposed to disapprove of and argue against.
Unfortunately, it sums up much of my own thinking perfectly.
Excellent post Mark. The contempt that the Conservatives have held Library services in since coming back to power in 2010 is simply quite astonishing. It is widely recognised that as a nation we have a real problem with literacy; libraries, amongst all of the other wonderful things they offer, should be key in tackling the nations literacy problem. Instead the Government has spent the past 8 years slashing funding, replacing paraprofessIonals with volunteers, & not bothering to replace professional staff at all, leaving them overworked and meaning specialised posts no longer exist, turning buildings over to “the Community”, or just allowing outright widespread closures like you are currently seeing in Northants.
“This blog isn’t about the natural world but it is about the political one in which the natural world sits.”
It’s the other way round, surely?
Now, there’s a debate!
The age of austerity is a bandwagon jumped on by George Osborne in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis solely aimed at facilitating the Conservative party’s objective to destroy public services. And especially local Government public services like libraries.
Unfortunately for all of us, it’s backfired and the chaos created by cuts to local authority funded social care and in the backlash, on top of Langley’s disorganisation, on the NHS its a photo finish between whether the NHS or the Conservatives are finished by it – or possibly both.
Don’t forget than Oliver Letwin said that if the Conservatives were elected in 2010 they would destroy the NHS in 5 years.
And isn’t it interesting how the top ranks of GDP are so occupied not by big, productive, countries but by tiny tax havens – most especially Jean Claude Junkers Luxembourg, built entirely on ripping off other nations tax revenues.
And another rather chilling fact – our struggling NHS is as good as and cheaper than its European comparators who operate various approaches including our (largely) pure private sector and protected insurance. The NHS cost just over 9% of GDP; the rest of Europe is in the same league. But the US system costs a whacking 17% of GDP – almost double – AND it doesn’t even look after all its citizens.
With Grayling about to hand over £1 billion of our money back to Richard Branson (who needs it far more than you, I’m sure you’ll agree) and one of the biggest PFI beneficiaries about to go belly up the Conservatives free market is looking distinctly dodgy.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining – it’s easier to understand why Michael Gove and Theresa May are out watching WWT brilliant ducks at Barnes Wetland Centre.
Sorry – should have been public sector, obviously !
Simply closing libraries to save money sounds like the lazy solution. Here in Devon management of our libraries has been taken on by a newly formed social enterprise, Libraries Unlimited – see https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/libraries-unlimited
So far none of our libraries have closed. Of course, finding the right people to run the mutual and winning strong support from the councillors was critical…
It’s weird how we’ve gone backwards. My school library was used as a public library until the one in the Weston Favell Centre opened up.
I wonder if Mr.Javid will notice the £10 million David Cardoza (Tory party member and Tory Council) fled with?