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Open promise
11:03am Friday 21st September 2007
At a meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council's culture committee this spring there was a welcome surprise.
Both the Labour and Conservative parties declared that, if taking charge of the show after the local elections, they would open the Jubilee Library on a Sunday.
What a boost for the city! The book-hungry residents had finally been heard. What's more, that prospect was repeated in election leaflets.
Eager to hear progress, last week I asked a public question at the committee. This was of particular interest because the same meeting was to discuss increases in various library charges, such as for reservations.
These increases were not, in fact, to meet the costs of any Sunday opening but simply to keep the libraries going.
I was told that there is a desire to open the Jubilee Library on a Sunday but no plans to do so.
How very disappointing. Even as things stand, the library service's opening hours do not meet the public library service standards: all authorities should provide opening hours of 128 hours per 1,000 residents.
That figure was set in 2001, but last year Brighton and Hove had still achieved only 90 hours - one of the lowest figures among unitary authorities. Anybody must now doubt future election promises.
When will politicians realise the importance of libraries? The new football stadium could not contain the number who visit them each week. As such, even a modest increase in the budget allocated to libraries would have a remarkable effect.
The books bought with that money would not disappear at the end of the financial year. They stay around, bringing in more and more readers.
Brighton and Hove's interesting, diverse demography means that - as survey after survey has shown - opening hours should be a priority.
Of course, if, for now, it really is impossible to open the Jubilee Library on a Sunday, Hove's Carnegie Library could form just such an experiment.
What better way to celebrate its 2008 centenary?
- Christopher Hawtree, Westbourne Gardens, Hove
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