Essex Libraries

The ongoing saga of the library closures in Essex again illustrates the difficulties of reducing Council budgets in an era when people just shout past each other.  The efforts to placate the opponents of the Council's plans has merely led to the Council spending a lot more money on the service area (cutting services for elsewhere as a consequence) and kicking the can down the road.

Now the Essex campaigners are worried about these shadowy groups not being properly accountable for the money they obtain and not needing to meet the same standards as public libraries, and they are right to be.