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.
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