« Libraries in Wales | Main | £158,000 owed for library fines in Essex »
January 30, 2007
As long as taxpayers keep paying....
I know of at least eight councils in which "a review of the public library service" is taking place. These have come about because councillors in office or in opposition have raised the service sufficiently high up the agenda for there to be a need.. It means that there is recognised to be a serious problem.
There are certainly many more councils of which I have not heard, doing the same thing.
However, the process takes months- probably years. People will spend months and months rehearsing the procedures and committee hearings that are required to satisfy the processes of such scrutiny
No one considers for a minute that the review is taking place because the public are receiving unsatisfactory service for which they are being forced to keep paying-- and that therefore the need is urgent.
This is allowed to be happen because there is no pressure of money -- the libraries could close down (they often do for holidays and extended refits) - but unlike in the non-paid-for world - when the service isn't there the people who work in it still get paid.
The procedures of the council become far more important than the needs of the public-- so that as long as it can be said that a review is in progress, no one cares tuppence about whether the service is any good or not. Two or three years of poor quality work don't matter-- as long as there is a process of review being called for or in place.
People say to me "Local councils are very slow you know" - as if somehow that was acceptable and a fact of life. It isn't and it should not be.
It is fine to have a service that is "free at the point of delivery" and I would never suggest that be changed-- but that arrangement places enormous responsibility on the senior managers in public service to act with the diligence and expedition that is required of managers who don't have the same cash- flowing- abundant world in which to work.
Diligence and Expedition would be make good civil administration-- but we certainly don't see much of them.
For goodness sake hurry up and do the job!
Posted by Tim Coates at January 30, 2007 10:27 AM