STRONG hints have been dropped by Croydon Council leader, Mike Fisher, that the council will look long and hard at whether to continue to jointly fund Upper Norwood Library with neighbouring Lambeth.

Councillor Fisher said his patience was being tried after Lambeth councillors failed to attend last week's library annual general meeting causing it to be abandoned.

This is the second year running no agreement has been reached on the make-up of the joint managing committee and no meetings have been held over the past year.

According to Mr Fisher over that time Croydon has had no input into how the £180,000 it gives the library is being spent or how it is run.

The problem arises from Mr Fisher's decision to have only Conservative cabinet members as Croydon representatives.

Both Croydon's Labour opposition and Labour Lambeth believe the joint agreement allows for local ward councillors to have a place on the committee.

This point was reiterated this week by Councillor Florence Nosegbe, Lambeth's cabinet member for culture who said for the joint committee to work effectively it was essential councillors from Upper Norwood sat on the committee.

She added: "Local residents and library users can rest assured that I and my Lambeth colleagues will do all we can to press for local representation."

Upper Norwood councillor, Pat Ryan claimed the Tories in Croydon were reneging on an agreement about places for local councillors .

The situation, he said, was "a complete disgrace and an affront to democracy."

The Tories, however, deny any agreement about local representation was ever formally signed.

Mr Fisher said: "I don't tell Lambeth who they should appoint and I don't expect them to tell me."

He said he believed Lambeth, by attending the meeting, was in breach of the 1994 joint agreement because it was ensuring effective governance of the library.

It was not acceptable, he said, for Croydon to be in a position where it could not discuss how its money was being used.

Mr Fisher said the aim would be to seek a meeting with Lambeth as quickly as possible.

But he said: "Lambeth is not taking its responsibilities under the agreement seriously and therefore we have to look to see whether the agreement should continue in the longer term."

The agreement can be ended if it is proved governance of the library has broken down.