Brighton and Hove mobile library facing axe

3:00pm Friday 14th September 2012 in News

Brighton and Hove mobile library facing axe Brighton and Hove mobile library facing axe

A mobile library service is to be axed despite a well-supported campaign to keep it.

Brighton and Hove City Council have announced they are looking to replace the mobile library vehicle with a personalised door-to-door “books-on-wheels” delivery service.

Council officials said they lacked sufficient funds and had been unsuccessful in finding local partners to help run the mobile library service.

However, Labour councillors claimed the council had failed to consider their own proposals for funding the service.

The council is proposing a full-time home delivery library officer to visit residents unable to get to libraries and deliver books to their doorstep and give home tuition in Internet, email and social media skills.

The home delivery service will have a budget of £25,000 per year and would require the assistance of volunteers.

The proposal would free-up the £120,000 allocated to buy a new vehicle put forward at February’s budget meeting.

The service’s future remained uncertain despite that funding pledge without a commitment from an outside partner to cover £74,000 annual running costs for ten years.

More than 1,500 people signed a petition to save the community facility, used by more than 800 individuals.

Councillor Geoffrey Bowden, chairman of the economic development and culture committee, said the new service could reach people in a way the mobile library couldn’t.

The proposals will be discussed at the cross-party economic development and culture committee on Thursday.

Councillor Brian Fitch, Labour and Cooperative spokesman for culture, said: “We were promised by the Greens that they would take our suggestion of finding the shortfall fromagencies such as the police, the health authority and the fire service seriously, they clearly haven’t.”

Conservative culture spokeswoman Vanessa Brown cautiously backed the plan.

What do you think of it? Tell us by writing to our letters page, emailing letters@theargus.co.uk or leaving a comment below

Comments(14)

pjwilk says...
3:45pm Fri 14 Sep 12

Just cut MPs and Councillors salaries, that's a real waste of money.

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s&k says...
3:53pm Fri 14 Sep 12

Whatever the financial situation, anything which encourages learning and reading especially for older people and children, and those who might not use other libraries should NOT be cut. This is a silly move.

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Crystal Ball says...
4:02pm Fri 14 Sep 12

So the Council is happy to 'loan' £14m for construction of a pointless blot on the landscape and spend £25k on a survey about residents' opinion on the woeful parking situation but important services that reach out to people who may not be able to get to a main library are cut?

Pathetic.

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Roundbill says...
4:15pm Fri 14 Sep 12

I'm sure we'll continue to see this vehicle around town: I'll give it 18 months until its parked up in Preston Park Avenue with a chimney in the roof, some tie-tyed curtain in the windows and a bunch of snotty, brats with dreadlocked mullets running round it.
It's the ideal tax-free dwelling for a braying trustafarian couple and their vile offspring.

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F in L says...
4:32pm Fri 14 Sep 12

And so it begins.....

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Hove Actually says...
4:52pm Fri 14 Sep 12

There are enough libraries in the city to meet everyone's needs. Good to see this type of waste being dealt with.

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Cash Cow says...
12:08am Sat 15 Sep 12

So are the wonderful, helpful, friendly staff to lose their jobs, just before Christmas? The week before last I reserved three books, returning the following week, all three were there waiting for me, I was charged a total of £1.50 for this service, 50p per book. So I have got plenty of well chosen reading material for less than the price of half a pint of beer or a cup of coffee, a bargain. Perhaps the greedy council could charge a fee for all books, not just those reserved or returned late, and keep the service going and the staff employed. After all if I went to one of Hove Actually's adaquate libraries, it would cost me as much to park, or catch a bus, so I would rather pay for the use of the mobile library instead. Also the greedy council are missing another great chance to extort more money from the hard working public, they could have one of their parking enforcement officers following the library around, perhaps on one of their scooters, then hiding around the corner so when people like me don't bother buying a parking ticket and illegally park for a couple of minutes while exchanging books, they could pounce and issue hefty fines?

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NickBrt says...
8:30am Sat 15 Sep 12

I agree with roundbill's posting. No doubt when that happens Caroline and her tribe fo councillors will be rushing round to the lorry's new residents checking they have benefits, sanitation and everything else they need, yet they don't give a **** for taxpayers who just need a little bit of help which the mobile library provides. I wouldn't be surprised if their acid-test is a) does a service benefit protesters b) is the service sufficiently anti-EDO and c) does it benefit travellers. if the answer to any of these is NO then it is cut out immediately. Come back Labour!

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Somethingsarejustwrong says...
10:31am Sat 15 Sep 12

I recall some sort of survey of users vs costs of a Library service where it would prove cheaper to provide the few with a kindle and free downloads than to maintain the service.

Interesting how a minority want to hang on to something, which they perceive as a right, when its us tax payers who fund these things. We should cut right back and surface all these wastes and address them asap.

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MarkBrighton says...
10:41am Sat 15 Sep 12

Roundbill wrote:
I'm sure we'll continue to see this vehicle around town: I'll give it 18 months until its parked up in Preston Park Avenue with a chimney in the roof, some tie-tyed curtain in the windows and a bunch of snotty, brats with dreadlocked mullets running round it.
It's the ideal tax-free dwelling for a braying trustafarian couple and their vile offspring.
'vile offspring'
a negative view on alternative adults is your perogative, but to label anyones children as 'vile' is disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself for such a fascist comment. You, Roundbill, are not what Brighton is about. I have lived here all my life and am proud of Brightons tolerant attitude.

People who are not tolerant of others are mainly insecure, unhappy and jealous. Sort yourself out.

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chilliman says...
1:17pm Sat 15 Sep 12

The caravan dweller in Carden Park this morning clearly didn't take any notice of Mr Kitkat the other day. The gate had been rammed open by the look of it.

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NickBrt says...
4:24pm Sat 15 Sep 12

Chilliman, I never really believed Kit-e-Kat really stopped a traveller getting through the fence, it was a publicity stunt to try and drum up votes to get us thinking he actually wanted to tackle the issue.

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pperrin says...
5:49pm Fri 21 Sep 12

Hove Actually wrote:
There are enough libraries in the city to meet everyone's needs. Good to see this type of waste being dealt with.
Its not about quantity, its about location/access.For instance themobile library serves Ovingdean which (thanks to the greens) no longer even has a direct bus into central brighton to get to the main library...

We pay the same coujncil tax as everyone else, but get very little back in the way of services.

And who wants a council rep snooping around their home whenever they want to chose a book from the library?

And presumably council employees will refuse to enter the homes of smokers etc...

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pperrin says...
5:50pm Fri 21 Sep 12

Hove Actually wrote:
There are enough libraries in the city to meet everyone's needs. Good to see this type of waste being dealt with.
Its not about quantity, its about location/access.For instance themobile library serves Ovingdean which (thanks to the greens) no longer even has a direct bus into central brighton to get to the main library...

We pay the same coujncil tax as everyone else, but get very little back in the way of services.

And who wants a council rep snooping around their home whenever they want to chose a book from the library?

And presumably council employees will refuse to enter the homes of smokers etc...

Report this post »

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