Savings 'will justify' £250k cost of Croydon libraries hand over
A £250,000 exercise is being launched to find an outside organisation to run Croydon's libraries.
The decision to seek tenders to take over the service was agreed by members of the council's cabinet on Monday.
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PROTESTS: Initial threats to six Croydon branch libraries provoked widespread anger
The procurement process is being run in partnership with Wandsworth Council.
The council feels a joint contract could bring the greatest savings but Croydon's cabinet member for culture and sport, Sara Bashford said if it eventually proved better value for Croydon to go it alone, then this approach would be taken.
Ms Bashford has also made it plain that any contractor would not be able to decide to close any libraries in the future and that contracts would have built-in flexibility to ensure spending on books could be monitored.
The cost of going through the tendering exercise was attacked at Monday's meeting by Councillor Maggie Mansell, Labour's shadow cabinet member for culture and sport.
She asked: "Is it worth spending £250,000 when savings could be made in-house without that cost?"
But Ms Bashford said the plan would save money in the long-run and also defended the six months it would take to carry out detailed dialogue with organisations which tender for the contract.
She said: "It does look like a long time, however, we need the right amount of time to do it properly and ensure we do not make mistakes or miss anything.
"We hope at the end of it we will end up with a better library service than we have now."
The decision to look at outsourcing the service came after a massive public protest led the council to drop original plans to close six branch libraries, saving around £600,000.
The draft timetable will see invites for tenders being made, followed by the six-month dialogue between January and June next year at which specifications for running the service will be laid down.
It is expected a contract with a preferred bidder will be finalised in October 2012 with the new contract beginning in January 2013.
In the run up to Monday's meeting, eight organisations had expressed serious interest in taking on the contract.
They comprised four local government bodies – Bexley and Bromley Council Consortium, Essex County Council, Merton Council and Vision Redbridge plus three private companies – Civica, John Laing Integrated Services and American firm LSSI.
The eighth potential bidder was Greenwich Leisure Ltd, a non-profit co-operative which runs leisure services in 11 London boroughs.
4 Comments
by tbabygib
Monday, September 26 2011, 7:44PM
“I myself haven't been to one in donkeys years, but my partener is keen on stamps, the Libraries books were years out of date. Went on the internet and found out some were worth a bit, so made a bit. :0, Unless they can keep up to date, they should go, they are after all supposed to be able to inform, but not out dated info' thats good for nothing.”
by Ivor_Shed
Monday, September 26 2011, 6:56PM
“I agree that many elderly people do not use computers or the Internet. My 85 year old mother-in-law is a prime example. She does however have broadband and a wireless e-printer which means we can send her notes, photos and news by sending an email direct to the address of her printer - and it prints them out. just like the postman but no envelopes to open.
She is also a prime example of someone who is completely incapable of getting to the library - even if a mobile library parked as close as possible. She does phone us and we place an Internet order which she waits for the postman to bring - currently she is waiting for 3 x crossword books, a pair of sheepskin moccasins and some long warm socks.
Mrs.Shed is able to remotely control the PC in Granny Shed's spare bedroom from anywhere in the world and can then do a Sainsburys shopping order without leaving home.
I haven't been to a library for 50 years but I can still tell you about the neutrino particle experiments in CERN, the orbit decay of the NASA UARS satellite or the world record for the 220 metre hurdles.
Tell you what - you set off for the library and I'll go to my 'always on' PC and we'll see who finds the information first. I'm fascinated at the moment by the struggle now Southern Sudan has independence.
But think ahead - can you imagine ANY of today's teenagers going to a library rather than looking up the information on their smartphone - so in 40 years time libraries will definitely have gone and an e-book reader will cost £3.99. Maybe they will be gone sooner than 40 years!
As a 62 year old (another clue tbg) I almost am one of those elderley people! I shudder to think of the cost of running those 4,500 libraries - just so teachers can advertise.”
by LAFANTASTICA
Monday, September 26 2011, 6:22PM
“An awful lot of elderly people do not use the internet. I found the libraries very useful when I needed to get students interested in a conversation class. I spent two whole days driving around all the adult education centres and libraries with posters. I got my class. Libraries are a good place to advertise. Also - teachers wanting to do private tuition all advertise in the library. It's a good place to go to for information.”
by Ivor_Shed
Monday, September 26 2011, 1:49PM
“close all of them down and save the money. For people who want to 'borrow' a book to read for 3 weeks - set up a system like Blockbusters where you would order the book by phone or Internet - or with a letter on headed notepaper if you were that way inclined. It arrives with a prepaid return envelope and you pay a small charge. Instead of 4,517 public libraries there could be ONE warehouse in Aberdeen or Hemel Hempstead with 10,000 copies of each new novel.
reference Library - the books are out of date - use the Internet. I have a complete set of Collins field guides - lovely they look on the bookshelf but I haven't opened one for years.
Down and outs who drop in for a warm - open up the church halls or get bigger charity shops (you could use the closed libraries).
If you want it to cost more money then outsource it to a private company who will lie about the service you will get. Remember - you will be paying the cost of running a library PLUS their profits for their shareholders.”