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Suffolk proposes charitable trust model for libraries
01.01.70 | Lisa Campbell
Suffolk County Council is proposing setting up a charitable trust to run its 44 libraries.
The trust, an Industrial and Provident Society (IPS), would get 95% of its funding from the council and an 80% reduction in property rates, according to a BBC report.
Under the proposal, no library would close although the council is still looking for widespread involvement from local community groups, with libraries expected to generate the remaining 5% of their costs through "efficiency savings" and money-making projects.
According to the Lowestoft Journal, this would be a cost of £100,000 per library.
Around 20 staff posts would be lost under the scheme, which would also cut mobile library visits from once a fortnight to once a month. Suffolk's libraries would cost £6.49m a year under the new proposals, compared to the £9.0m budget for 2010-11, the council said. The council will vote on the proposal next week.
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This seems rather odd. Although Cambridgeshire CC realized it would be most unlikely to make the savings it had anticipated, due to the expectation that rules re. business rates will change under the Localism Bill, the news seems not have penetrated as far as Suffolk. For a very good analysis of the latest from Suffolk, it is well worth reading 'Suffolk Enters the Unknown' on Public Libraries News today http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2011/10/suffolk-enters-unknown.html
This idea of 'saving on property rates' demonstrates the utter cyncism of the process of local government.
Under the current rules, in which this proposal has been made, a 'trust' would avoid having to pay business rates that would have gone to central government. So the central pot would be smaller by that amount
Under the new regime which is about to come in, the libraries would avoid paying business rates, but now that money would reduce the pot in their own local council, which, they will suddenly see when they read the bill, is not a good idea at all
None of these things are actual savings- they are just accounting niceties within the realms of government. They are just a sham - the ridiculous pursuit of occupies the lives of thousands of overpaid officials and takes up oceans of public money
Has anyone done the arithmetic here?
If the Lowestoft Journal is correct in saying that 5% = £100,000 for each library, and SCC has 44 of them, then the current budget must be £88,000,000. However, in this Bookseller article the present budget is given as £9,000,000. Huh?
This seems rather odd. Although Cambridgeshire CC realized it would be most unlikely to make the savings it had anticipated, due to the expectation that rules re. business rates will change under the Localism Bill, the news seems not have penetrated as far as Suffolk. For a very good analysis of the latest from Suffolk, it is well worth reading 'Suffolk Enters the Unknown' on Public Libraries News today http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2011/10/suffolk-enters-unknown.html
This idea of 'saving on property rates' demonstrates the utter cyncism of the process of local government.
Under the current rules, in which this proposal has been made, a 'trust' would avoid having to pay business rates that would have gone to central government. So the central pot would be smaller by that amount
Under the new regime which is about to come in, the libraries would avoid paying business rates, but now that money would reduce the pot in their own local council, which, they will suddenly see when they read the bill, is not a good idea at all
None of these things are actual savings- they are just accounting niceties within the realms of government. They are just a sham - the ridiculous pursuit of occupies the lives of thousands of overpaid officials and takes up oceans of public money
Has anyone done the arithmetic here?
If the Lowestoft Journal is correct in saying that 5% = £100,000 for each library, and SCC has 44 of them, then the current budget must be £88,000,000. However, in this Bookseller article the present budget is given as £9,000,000. Huh?