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November 17, 2006
Hampshire
Only 8 years ago Hampshire County Library Service was one the best in the country.
Here is yet another piece of sad news:
"Hampshire Tories cut another £250,000 from the Book Fund yesterday (Thursday) to help meet a £500,000 overspend in this year's Recreation & Heritage budget. They're also planning to make a third of Hampshire's professional librarians redundant next year in a bid to save a further £1 million.
Liberal Democrats opposed both the cut in the Book Fund and the staffing cuts which will do nothing to help the Library service as the £1m will not be used on improving library buildings, extending opening hours or improving the book stock.
At least the Scrutiny Review of Libraries is, at last, about to start. Only a year late!"
Posted by Perkins at November 17, 2006 9:25 PM
Comments
I'm very concerned about what's happening to our libraries. Apparently, when the Winchester "Discovery Centre" opens we won't actually be able to telephone it directly because Hampshire Council is setting up a call centre that is costing £5 million initially, plus millions each year to run. They are also spending £40 million on tarting up the offices at the Castle for 750 employees (that's around £60,000 each!) and spending hundreds of thousands on landscaping and refurbishing the county councillors'restaurant. This is at the same time as cutting spending on books and sacking librarians.
Posted by: phil at November 30, 2006 8:28 PM