On 3 September the new £188m Library of Birmingham is due to open. Its arrives in the wake of £2.1m worth of cuts to community libraries issued by Birmingham’s Labour council in 2012-13, which have seen opening hours shortened by 9.5% and a 37% cut to paid library staff – with volunteers expected to make up for the shortfall. Yet before its gates have even opened, the Labour city council has made plans to privatise the running of the new library.
In March the city council started the procurement process to acquire contractors to run the library. According to the procurement notice, ‘The successful applicant will be expected to operate the Library of Birmingham (LoB) including but not limited to the City’s archive collection, support services for Community Libraries, the Mobile Library, Library Service at Home and management of the Council’s book fund’. The council will be paying a private company to run this public service, having never announced the plans in its election manifestos or budget consultation documents, and it has refused to make the shortlist of applicants publically available.
On 29 April the City Council issued a public ‘rebuttal’ to these reports, claiming that it will run the library when it opens in September. In reality the response simply confirms that the privatisation has been temporarily postponed as the council works out the details of the contract; procurement will recommence in March 2014, some six months after the library opens – it remains a Labour cabinet commitment.
A campaign is currently being established and has organised an online petition, which anti-cuts activists are encouraged to sign:
www.ipetitions.com/petition/put-people-before-profit-dont-privatise
Jack Edwards
