How Much has Brent Council Paid Out for Volunteer Libraries?

One of the expectations that Brent Council's budget panel has is that volunteer libraries save money.  This may well be untrue, partly because of hidden ongoing costs.  Although Brent Libraries services seem to have so far avoiding most involvement.  There is a real danger of being sucked in, and facing constant demands for Danegeld. 

In terms of the money paid to these groups, as far as I can see:

• "Barham Library" has been gifted a soft renting arrangement.
• "Preston Library" has been promised the a peppercorn lease on a building valued by officers at circa £1 million for several years, not paying the market rate of about £50k per year.
• Cricklewood, FKRL and Preston all appear to have been gifted £73k each for capital improvements.

These grants appear to be the vast majority of the group income in each case.  Although they could be defended as relatively small amounts (compared to a Northamptonshire football club for example), both the principle and the opportunity cost are significant.  If the principle is conceded, the numbers can snowball, and of course Brent Libraries Service could probably have done a lot more with the capital grant than I imagine will happen it any of these privatised libraries.