Libraries

A helping hand for the county council

Thursday, 08 December 2011

Following the landmark High Court victory, the campaign group, Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries, has offered Gloucestershire County Council an olive branch by providing a guidance document or template on how to undertake its new library review.

All the county council’s proposals for its public library services, including those for communities to fund and run their own libraries, were deemed illegal and quashed by the High Court in November 2011. The county council now has to come up with new and legal proposals.

The author of the guidance document, John Holland, has drawn on best practice by other authorities undertaking library reviews, the findings of the Charteris Inquiry for the government’s Department for Culture, Media & Sport, and advice from Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, as well as his own wealth of experience in public libraries senior management.

Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries member John Holland said, “We are genuinely trying to help the county council. It is to no one’s advantage if the county council again proposes deeply unpopular cuts which fall foul of the law. No one wants another court case. I hope that councillors Hawthorne and Noble will at least consider the document I have sent them. I really believe that it will help them.”