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March 23, 2010
Capital
At the time of the Kaufman review in 2004/5 the Audit Commission had published a report in which they said that the poor state of library buildings was a key factor in the decline of use of libraries.
Gerald Kaufman consequently recommended that an estimate be prepared for the renewal of buildings and that the DCMS should identify where funds would come from.
There was a survey carried out and various figures produced- and the consensus was that if only we could find £600m we could do a restoration job and solve the problem. Everyone laughed and forgot the whole thing. There was no way of finding £600m. ..although the lottery stumped up £100m for 'special community projects'
However the latest CIPFA figures will reveal that in the last 5 years we have in fact spent over £450m. That means that if there had been coordinated sensible action we could, within a six year timetable have nearly completed the whole job. Instead of that we have spent most of the money on a handful of fancy presige projects, some of which people are now desperately trying to forget.
What a waste. Lack of leadership means waste of money. It is worth sorting this problem out
Why was there no discussion about the state of library buildings in the Hodge review? Why? Why? Why?
Posted by Perkins at March 23, 2010 10:20 PM