15 January 2007

Closure of Holbrooks Library

Conservative council cabinet member Gary Ridley (Sherbourne) has admitted to the Coventry Times that he "had a hand in writing" and had "edited" a report that called for the closure of Holbrooks Library. The Times also found that government targets, referred to in the report and on repeated occasions since by Cllr Ridley, that required the council to close 2 of the 18 libraries in the city, does not exist, or ever did exist.

Andrew Green, the council's head of libraries, wrote in the report that "Government guidance stipulated that for a population of 304 000, the city should have 16 libraries." Green admitted to the newspaper that including these phrases was a "political decision" drawn up with Ridley, and that the cut of the Holbrooks library will only save £53 000 a year from the council's £234 million budget.

Both Green and Ridley could face charges, at the Standards Board of England, over their conduct.

The actual "minimum guidelines" -- not targets -- from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, recommend that councils ensure that:

- every household is within 2 miles of a library
- 95% live within 1 mile of a library
- councils meet a minimum number of opening hours for its population

Coventry is providing 15% more hours that its minimum requirement, but so do 15 of 150 other councils surveyed by the Coventry Times.

No comments: