Barnet
Libraries Consultation: A Sham
A
Joint Letter from the Barnet Bloggers to the Leader of Barnet Council
Barnet
Bloggers are appalled by reported plans to outsource libraries and make them
available to commercial exploitation by companies such as Starbucks and
Waterstones. The real purpose of proposals to cut and shut libraries in Barnet
is now clear.
In April 2013, a High Court ruling found that Barnet
Council had failed in its obligation properly to consult residents over the
imposition of the whole scale privatisation of local public services, known
then as ‘One Barnet’.
The Judicial Review which had reached this conclusion
found that legal challenge had been brought too late, and therefore the two
massive contracts with Capita, agreed by the Conservative administration, are
now in place for a period of at least ten years.
After narrowly being returned to power the new administration
has, as predicted, rushed ahead with new plans to outsource most of the
remaining services, at the same time as launching plans to impose devastating
cuts in budget.
As a result, we now face devastating plans to slash
the funding of our library service by a staggering 60%, a disproportionate and
punitive amount which is clearly agreed as a means of preparing the argument
for yet another act of privatisation.
Councillors have been presented with a report with
three equally damaging options for the future of Barnet Libraries, and
residents encouraged to take part in what we believe to be a deeply flawed and
subjective consultation process, one which an independent report has described
as not fit for purpose:
Now we are faced with new information which, if
true, would suggest that far from learning the lessons of the Judicial Review, the
authority’s latest consultation process, as well as being deliberately designed
to minimise opposition to the three options, is itself a complete irrelevance,
and that the outcome of the council’s consideration of the three options is
already agreed in principle, if not in detail.
And if this is dialogue is typical of the way in
which potential business partners negotiate with the authority, it would also
raise serious and wider questions over the integrity of the procurement process
in Barnet, past and present.
Whatever
the opinions of residents, it seems that there will be closure and sale of
library buildings, and the outsourcing of our library service, engineered so as
to provide opportunities for commercial exploitation by private contractors.
Such an outcome would be simply unacceptable, and indeed
would be an unlawful decision taken in complete disregard of the democratic
process.
We ask Councillor Richard Cornelius, leader of the
Conservative administration, immediately to halt the discredited consultation
currently in place, remove the library proposals from the budget cuts about to
be imposed, and to launch an independent investigation into the alleged
subversion of the due process of democratic engagement that should decide the
governance of our borough, and hold the authority to account in a way that is
fair, and transparent.
Derek Dishman
John Dix
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne
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