Category Archives: Libraries

Here is another interesting piece of analysis from B-BBC contributor Alan with which it is hard to argue!

“It is a fact that government cuts are forcing local authorities to close libraries. We know this because the BBC tells us so. It is just one of the remorseless attacks on the poor and vulnerable in society that this government’s savage cuts inflict upon us….leading inevitably to social breakdown, lack of opportunity, lack of social mobility, all combining to produce a level of frustration and fury amongst the disposessed that their only outlet for political dialogue is rioting and looting….a political statement of despair and rage at being abandoned on the scrapheap of life as bankers loot the country and pay themselves massive bonuses.

However looking at the annual accounts of a council such as Brent in London, which is closing libraries, a curious picture arises.

Here we have the budget requirements for the years 2004-2011:
http://www.brent.gov.uk/councilfinance.nsf/Pages/LBB-8

2004/05 £347,415,000
2005/06 £367,234,000
2006/07 £235,513,000
2007/08 £255,972,000
2009/10 £261,836,000
2010/11 £265,469,000

I am no accountant nor an expert in local government finance but it would seem to me that in 2006, under Labour, Brent ‘s budget dropped enormously….but there was no talk of library closures then.And it looks that since then its budget has been growing again….could it be that the library closures are politically motivated….puts a new perspective on the comrades in City Hall…..prepared to sacrifice the citizens for political advantage. The question is….if libraries were kept open throughout the years of depression and recession in decades previous how is it that they cannot be kept open now…just what has the council been spending its money on? Why hasn’t the BBC asked that obvious question?