Short list to run library services narrowed down to five
FIVE organisations are on the shortlist to run library services in Croydon and Wandsworth.
The short list is the result of around a year of partnership work by the two boroughs to deliver what they claim will be a good library service which offers better value for money for taxpayers.
The councils are not revealing who is on the short list but says it contains a mixture of local authorities and private companies.
In September last year, Croydon Council said eight organisations had expressed a serious interest in running the libraries.
These included a consortium from Bexley and Bromley Council, Merton Council, Vision Redbridge and Essex County Council.
Private companies interested were Civica, John Laing Integrated Services and American company LSSI. The list was completed by Greenwich Leisure Service, a non-profit co-operative which runs leisure services in 11 London boroughs.
It has since been suggested that Wandsworth Council itself is interested in the contract.
Councillor Sara Bashford, Croydon's cabinet member for culture and sport, said: "These short-listed organisations have shown that they potentially have the vision, expertise and financial backing to deliver modern, efficient and effective library services."
Stressing that closing libraries in Croydon is not an option, she said the five organisations would now be given full specifications on how the council wanted services to operate. Talks would be held with them when they came back with detailed responses, and the short list would be whittled down to three.
She said the intention was to make a recommendation to the cabinet for a preferred bidder in September, with the aim of having the new contract up and running in January next year.
5 Comments
by Chris_Wilcox
Friday, February 10 2012, 10:43PM
“You'll find most disabled people do not have jobs, but there you go... *shrugs* It's well documented that there is a shortage of work out there for disabled people. And DLA don't pay that much.
You'll also find the late fee rise will effect the elderly as well. They can drop off the map for 2 weeks easy enough as well.”
by LAFANTASTICA
Friday, February 10 2012, 9:57PM
“Most disabled people have jobs. The few unemployed have a disability living allowance. Mine is the lowest one and I receive £78.20 every four weeks, plus a retirement allowance of £15.03 a week and a pension of £159 a week. Where does Chris Wilcox get the £20 a week for food amount from? His imagination, I think.”
by Chris_Wilcox
Friday, February 10 2012, 6:02PM
“If a 'for-profit' organisation gets hold of them I fully expect late fees to go up. And that will hit The Disabled hard.
With the Disabled it's easy to fall ill for 2 weeks and not be able to return your books. If it's only 20p per day for the late fee then 2 books for 2 weeks is ~£6.00. Not the end of the world.
If the late fee goes up to £2.00 per day you're looking at ~£60.00. Most Disabled only get about £20.00 a week for food, and have precious little left afterwards for other items. A hike in Library fees could make it simply too risky for The Disabled to borrow books from the local Libraries.
And that would be a tragedy.”
by artlibrarian1
Friday, February 10 2012, 11:24AM
“like the poster above I am wondering what this means for my local library in Upper Norwood which is jointly owned by Croydon and Lambeth and is the most cost efficient library in either borough. It seems like a waste of money to pay an external organisation to run their libraries when locally they have one that should be taken as an example for all the others...”
by Dayglo666
Friday, February 10 2012, 10:41AM
“Firstly, what happens about Upper Norwood Library it needs a decision now as the next amount of funding is due 31 March and Croydon have said that they will not pay
Secondly, where is the common sense of a costly procurement process potentially involving consultants at £766 per day that results in either a) a private sector contract that factors in a profit margin or b) the contract being awarded to another council with all the management overheads regarding SLAs that this will involve.
Croydon have not, but should include as an option a more efficient in-house library service based upon best practice either here in Croydon or elsewhere. Upper Norwood deliver the same services to the rest of Croydon but at half the price. A service based upon this model could benefit Croydon by £2m or more. WHY DO THE LOCAL TAXPAYERS STAND FOR IT”