Library campaigners in Brent suffered a setback yesterday when the Court of Appeal decided that the local council was not in breach of the law when it closed 6 local libraries. The library campaigners lost on all counts, including on grounds of equality. The judgment also said that the burden of centrally imposed budget cuts was a determining factor:
‘Given the scale of the spending reductions the council was required to make, and the information available following earlier studies, a decision that the library service should bear a share of the reduction was not, in my judgment, unlawful.’
It remains to be seen how Lord Justice Pill’s decision, in what is regarded as a test case, will affect the numerous other library campaigns currently before lesser courts. The battle in Brent is symbolic because it is the most prominent in the country — defeat for Brent is a defeat for library campaigners in general. The Brent team has renewed its calls for the secretary of state, Jeremy Hunt, to intervene under the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act: an indication that it might not pursue further costly legal action, although leave to appeal to the Supreme Court may yet be sought.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is thought to be wary of intervention for fear of contradicting the government’s decentralisation agenda. The government insists that it does not need to use its statutory powers because local cuts are an exclusive competence of councils under the 2011 Localism Act. It says that there are alternatives to library closures; and it has branded those councils that are substantially reducing services as ‘politically motivated’.
The judgment agreed with at least part of that analysis. He said that the council service could ‘bear a share’ without incurring costs so long as volunteers continued to staff and manage the libraries, a key part of the campaigners’ legal case. Pell also accepted that such arrangements have been reached in other areas. Brent council insists that it is working towards an equable solution with locals.
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