Author: Sally Perry
Select Committee Launches Inquiry Into Library Closures
1:56 pm Thursday, 24th November, 2011, Isle of Wight
ShortURL: http://wig.ht/296t
Read More- Island-wide, Isle of Wight Council, Library, News
The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee announced yesterday that they were launching an inquiry into library closures across the country.
The decision follows a number of High Court cases taken against councils (Brent, Gloucester, IW etc) for proposed library closures in response to the Spending Review.
We understand that library campaigners on the Island are discussing whether they’ll be responding to the invitation for written submissions on the inquiry.
The Committee is requesting views on the following issues:
- what constitutes a comprehensive and efficient library service for the 21st century;
- the extent to which planned library closures are compatible with the requirements of the Libraries & Museums Act 1964 and the Charteris Report;
- the impact library closures have on local communities;
- the effectiveness of the Secretary of State’s powers of intervention under the Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964.
Guidance on submitting written evidence
A copy of the submission should be sent by e-mail to cmsev@parliament.uk and have ‘Library closures’ in the subject line. Submissions should be received by Thursday 12th January 2012.
If you’re considering sharing your views with the Committee, the following guidelines are suggested reading.
Each submission should:
- state clearly who the submission is from, i.e. whether from yourself in a personal capacity or sent on behalf of an organisation
- be about 3,000 words in length / run to no more than six sides of A4 paper;
- as far as possible comprise a single document attachment to the email;
- begin with a short summary in bullet point form;
- have numbered paragraphs; and
- be in Word or Rich Text format (not PDF) with as little use of colour or logos as possible.
More information can be found on the CMSC Website.
A more detailed analysis of the news has been covered on Public Library News website.
Image: CCAC North Library under CC BY 2.0
Following the damming high court judgement on this council’s botched and flawed consultation attempt on social care, this is another piece of good news.
Hopefully this will be another warning to Pugh, Mazillius and other cabinet members to think very hard before arrogantly ploughing ahead with mean and unjust cuts to public services.
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Sallly and Simon
I’m not sure that your headline “Government Committee” is strictly accurate.
As far as I know the Culture, Media and Sports Committee consists of backbenchers who operate independently from Government. Indeed the Government is not bound to accept any recommendations the Committee makes.
That said I am pleased that MPs are looking at this issue.
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I will bow to your comments on this one and change the title to Select Committee rather than Government Committee.
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This is a parliamentary committee, so it will represent the whole of parliament and be broader than the government which is usually* just the people in the party with the biggest number of votes.
Governments do tend to listen to the committees as far as I can make out, because they’re seen to be fair and reasonable.
The wonderful Chris Mullin
(if you’ve never seen it, watch ‘A Very British Coup’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_British_Coup)
wanted to be on the home affairs select committee rather than in a ministry post when he started off in government (though he did become a junior minister later) because he saw them as doing the really useful work.
Anybody read his memoirs, by the way? I haven’t yet but the reviews are good.
*Pah! Not this time! So much for democracy – we need rules so we know what the parties will do if they don’t get an outright majority…
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This could be good news, having been in contact with groups of campaigners in many counties, the Select Committee are going to receive a vast mailbag on this. It is essential that Islanders show how much our libraries mean to us and make sure as many individuals as possible send in submissions so that the committee realise that we want our libraries all taken back under IWC control and funding and that the DCMS to their duty and uphold the 1964 Act.
Please get your friends to submit as well! Thanks fron the Friends of the IW Library Service.
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Well done Dave!
I’ve been out of the library campaign for months and must give myself a good boot to make sure I do something again at last.
This is our chance to make the case for libraries and why a decent civilised society needs them.
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