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The Save Our Libraries petition is calling on the council to reverse its plan
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Libraries sell off plan to be reviewed

By Caroline Cook
October 04, 2011

Controversial plans to put the management of the borough’s libraries out to tender will be reviewed in a full council debate after a petition with 2,374 signatures opposing the decision was handed to the council.

In June Wokingham Borough Council’s executive committee approved plans to tender for a private company to take over the running of the borough’s 10 libraries in a bid to save £170,000.

But a petition against the move which was launched by Liberal Democrats Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey and Anthony Vick in June, has collected more than the 1,500 signatures, meaning the council will be forced to hold a debate about the issue.

Speaking at the handover of the petition at a meeting of the full council on Thursday, September 22, Ms Shepherd-DuBey said: “We believe that 2,374 people agree with us that the council should think again about other options for the libraries.”

The Save Our Libraries petition is calling on the council to change its decision because campaigners say the only way a private company will make profit will be to close libraries and increase charges for residents.

But leader of the council Councillor David Lee told members at the full council meeting that the council must come up with new ideas to give its residents the best possible service. He said: “Unlike other authorities we have opened a new library and a new children’s centre recently.

“We could not have done that if we stay in the past and do nothing to change the way we provide our services.”

The move will see Wokingham Borough Council become one of the first in the country to outsource its libraries and executive members have repeatedly assured library users that the service will not be reduced.

After the meeting Cllr UllaKarin Clark, executive member for internal services, said the council is undergoing a process to find a partner company which would be willing to invest in the borough’s libraries. She said: “We are in the middle of the competitive dialogue stage. What we are doing is considering outsourcing and the reason for that is we need to make the substantial investment in our library service and we do not have the money.

“I do not understand where the Liberal Democrats are coming from. We do not want to close libraries. We have not got enough money to spend on things we would like to spend on as a council and we do not want to take any services away from people in the borough so there’s really no other option.”

It was hoped interested investors would have made an offer by January 2012, with a partner being approved by the council’s executive next March but plans could be delayed as the issue will be publicly debated at the next meeting of the full council on Thursday, November 17.

Leader of Wokingham Liberal Democrats Cllr Prue Bray said the debate will give the council a chance to rethink the decision and consider alternative options.

She said: “I do not know whether the Conservatives would change their mind, but we are not asking them to do this or do that we are asking them just to think again about giving it to a private sector organisation.

“We hope to have a proper constructive debate about what should be done in the future and how we can preserve them.”

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Most recent user comments 7 of 7

Keith, the problem is not simply that everyone is against privatisation. The problem is that nobody can see how money can be made out of the library service. If a private company comes in to run the contracts, then they won't want to do it to break even, or at a loss. Hence, the only way I can see them making money is by cutting the quality, the hours, the staff- and, unless you forbid them, and thus make the contract more unattractive and cuts to other areas, closing the smaller libraries.

As part of my interest in this, I have used Freedom of Information requests to get hold of statistics on library usage and budget. I've worked out that the council paid £5.41 for each visit to the library over the financial year 2010-2011, and that the library service cost, and that the library service (across the whole borough) cost £193.28 for each hour that it was open.

If anyone is interested in looking at the numbers in more detail, you can find them at my blog:

http://matthewsdent.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/foi-wokingham-libraries/

Matthew S. Dent, Wargrave
11/10/2011 at 08:41

This is not just about libraries.

Perhaps, if you wanted to save the proposed £170,000 WBC could cut the more than £500,000 of charge-backs for council services to the libraries?

The second question would be how is WBC going to recoup this £500K? From other departments? So if they charge the full cost of the libraries, less £170K "savings", that immediately gives a private company £330K profit less their cost of services. This is assuming they don't charge the libraries as much for those services. And, will libraries have to charge VAT on the services they provide,if they become part of a private company?

devoncatt
07/10/2011 at 21:18

There is a fundemental flaw in most of the comments here in that there is an assumption that council staff can always do things better than a private company. This is not always the case. There is also an assumption that we will be handing everything over to any successful bidder which is totally false.

All councils have loads of services (internal and external) that are actually provided via a contract. Cleaning, Road Maintenance, Waste are all examples of key services that are oursourced via a contract. Even Reading is part of the Waste contract!

If you read the invitation to tender they will see that the request is to provide a service with all assets remaining in the ownership of the council. The specification of the service has yet to be defined, a fact which was detailed in the tender documents. That specification is what will be potentially discussed in November and a degree of consultation will included. Until that specification has been defined and issued no-one can tender at all.

If the company providing the contracted service fails to provide that service then as with all contracts they will be terminated and the service will either come back in house or another provider sought. Do not forget that the Council will be paying significant sums to the provider in exactly the same way as we do in other areas to companies providing the contract.

Finally Mr Vicks comments about S106 money clerly indicates he does not understand the working of S106 money. Any developers money (S106) for libraries have to be spent on libraries and if not the developer will expect to have the money returned.

Cllr Keith Baker
06/10/2011 at 15:45

It's taken a petition to force Wokingham Council into having a proper debate about the future of its library services, up untill now they have acted with total disregard to public accountability and open and honest discussion, it's a disgrace! My own reasons for opposing the privatisation/outsourcing of oublic library services are as follows; Private companies are accountable to their shareholders. They exist to make profits and this, to me, in relation to running a public service is a fundamental conflict of interests. (LSSI are majority owned by the private equity firm ‘Islington Capital Partners’) There is always a real risk that a private company could fail, leaving the service and users high and dry. Public Libraries are perceived by most to be a ‘haven in a heartless world’ that offers a ‘neutral’, ‘public’, ‘non-judgemental’ and ‘safe’ environment. Privatisation introduces a commercial element into the equation which radically changes this status. LSSI, the main player, has a reputation in the US for using non-unionised staff, not paying pensions, cutting terms and conditions, deprofessionalising the workforce and paring the service back to the bone.

Alan Wylie
05/10/2011 at 10:46

Thank you to everyone who helped collect signatures - it wasn't only Lib Dems who collected signatures, ordinary people and members of other parties helped too.

It's hard to believe Wokingham's Executive don't understand why we submitted the petition: they're talking with private companies about outsourcing our libraries, with a view to saving £170k per year, and we simply don't think that's the way to go. Clearly if a private company were to manage our libraries it'd be seeking to make a profit and we think that'd be to the detriment of our libraries and their users. Simple, no?

I find the suggestion that private involvement will save the libraries from closing, bring investment and improve services very hard to swallow: Hounslow, the only authority with privately run libraries was recently reported to be attempting to close 8 of its 11 libraries; the Council's own report (http://tinyurl.com/WBCLibraries1) suggested the Council may be willing to offer an initial investment sweetener using public Section 106 money; and how can fewer staff and higher costs improve services?

There's only one sure fire way of stopping this happening and that's to convince our Borough Councillors to vote to "Think Again" on November 17th. Please tell your Borough councillors how you feel, you can do it using http://www.writetothem.com/ or find their email on http://wokingham.gov.uk/council/councillors/councillors-database/.

You can also find our ongoing on-line petition from http://www.savewokinghamslibraries.org/ or talk to us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Our-Libraries-In-Wokingham/241135085913936

Anthony - Save Our Libraries Campaigner.

Anthony Vick
05/10/2011 at 10:39

There's no way an individual library can be financially efficient, let alone self-sufficient, without charging (eg: subscriptions) to cover building rates & maintenance/lighting/heating/staffing/book populations etc on a basis determined by forecast use.

A private company will do exactly that, plus add a profit margin of their choosing.

If they fail to make profit, it will close anyway, simple as that.

If they take on a group of libraries, and one or more damages their margins, again, they will close them as non-viable.

You are correct though, it's not just library services.

C8H10N4O2
04/10/2011 at 12:46

If a private company can figure out a way to make the libraries more financally efficient, why can't the council figure that out too?

There's something wrong here...and it isn't just about libraries....