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Library campaigner Tim Coates has been elected chair of Libraries for Life for Londoners (LLL), a compaign organisation supporting London's 384 public libraries.
Coates was elected to the role at a meeting held on 1st April. According to Coates: "I promised the representative electors that I would make sure that libraries in London improve quickly and out of all recognition to the way they work now. The Public Library Service in London is astonishingly well funded at over £200m per annum, yet the service it gives is very poor."
Coates claimed that "fewer than 20 [London] libraries open in the evening, only a handful are open on Sundays, less than 6% of the funds are spent on books and many of the precious buildings are in a state of advanced dilapidation".
Coates has already emailed culture secretary Margaret Hodge, her Tory conterpart Ed Vaizey, MLA chief executive Roy Clare and the Mayor of London. In his email he wrote: "I certainly intend to be effective. My constituents are very worried about what the immediate future will bring. Reasonably so." He added: "We will make a simple statement about what we would like to see improved in the London libraries - and how, so that candidates for both parliamentary and council elections have a clear view of what their residents want from libraries."
LLL was founded in late 1999 and calls "for a comprehensive, high quality, well-managed, and accessible library service for all Londoners".