25/5/2007
Letters
Library cuts of £1m are not an investmentI was shocked to read that Hampshire County Council is slashing its library budget, downgrading librarians’ pay and renaming them ‘librarian officers’.
Despite council leader Ken Thornber’s protestations that the council has “invested” in our libraries over the past years, I do not consider a £1million a year cut in the budget as investment.
The council seems to consider its duty as a provider of decent library facilities as an added extra.
This is not the case. It is about time that the authorities put some real investment into our libraries, buying more books and computers and retaining staff, rather than treating their budgets as the first point of call to make savings.
Public libraries have been at the cornerstone of public education for centuries, when they were set up for the benefit of the people. These days other entertainment may have made libraries less popular than TV or computer games, but for many people, particularly children, libraries are a haven for quiet study and learning.
The Tories who run Hampshire say they believe in a meritocratic society. They say anyone should be able to reach the top based on their talents, regardless of their background. If they really believed this they would spend more money on public education facilities, not less.
The rich may not need to borrow books or use publicly available computers, but cuts to our public libraries will hit the less well off the hardest.
Donald Rungle
Farnborough
First printed in:
Aldershot News and Mail
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