YEARS OF UNDERFUNDING Upper Norwood library cannot be allowed to continue any longer, says Cllr Graham Pycock.
His comments came at the latest meeting of the Upper Norwood library joint committee which oversees the country's only independent library.
His comments came as Lambeth's cabinet member for culture and communities said the committee which run the Upper Norwood joint library appeared to be "underpinned by anxiety and distrust."
Cllr Rachel Heywood, Lambeth's cabinet member for culture and communities, made the comment at the latest meeting of the committee - of which she herself is a member.
Her comments came as members drew up plans to hold a meeting with officers from both Croydon and Lambeth councils - which jointly fund the country's only independent library - to discuss drafting a new agreement on how the library is funded.
"This committee seems to be underpinned by anxiety and distrust" she said. "This isn't a good sort of meeting. I'd like us to sit round the table and have a grown up discussion and recognise that this is a very important service. "It seems there's endless circles to these arguments."
Cllr Heywood said the idea of the proposed meeting of the two cabinet members and other members reported to the previous meeting in July had gone down very badly. She said she had been "very heavily lobbied" for that meeting not to go ahead.
Cllr Heywood said she had not intended to have a meeting with Cllr Steve Hollands - Croydon's cabinet member - in front of an audience. The matter should be discussed by the committee, not just the two cabinet members.
"But it has to be done on the understanding people will behave in a way that means we can have a sensible discussion.
"I'm not prepared to invite officers along to sit and listen to this kind of discussion. They are not going to support this library if they hear this sort of nonsense. I don't think it would benefit the library."
Cllr Heywood suggested setting up a small working group of the chairman, chief librarian and a member of the library campaign group to discuss how the meeting could be put together and what papers needed to be circulated.
Earlier Cllr Graham Pycock, a former chairman of the committee, said there was a lot of suspicion about both officers and committee members and "a feeling of great frustration this unique library has suffered from inconsistent and insufficient funding."
There had been years and years and years where both Lambeth and Croydon had failed to increase funding to Upper Norwood in line with their own libraries.
Politicians and officers in both boroughs had been obstructive. "Politicians feel they are the king of the castle - they are very reluctant to concede power and allow administration to a lower level" added Cllr Pycock (Con Gipsy Hill)..
"This library is withering on the vine. We don't want a meeting for the sake of a meeting The agreement doesn't work - it hasn't worked for years. There needs to be a new agreement which allows for funding which keeps pace with mainstream funding in both boroughs.
"The years of not funding Upper Norwood cannot be allowed to continue. In the light of its fantastic performance that's outrageous. It's important this library doesn't suffer more than mainstream libraries on both sides of the border.
"In an environment where both boroughs are cutting where do you think they are going to cut first? We're in a very vulnerable position."
Cllr Suzanne Poole (Con Gipsy Hill) said the agreement did not oblige Croydon or Lambeth to increase funding in line with inflation. There needed to be a more specific agreement which required the boroughs to provide a sufficient level of funding and a formula which took into account services provided by each borough with safeguards put in for inflation.
*The current agreement runs until 2014. The committee's next meetings are scheduled for Wednesday January 27th 2010 and Wednesday March 3rd 2010.
CAN YOU HELP?
The library is currently looking for outside funding to help with its information technology.
Half the IT capacity - which is five or six years old - has already been lost, chief librarian Bradley Millington told the committee.
There might be a small amount in the coffers at the end of the financial year in March - but that was partly on the basis the library had been carrying additional vacancies which put a lot of pressure on people.
A report to the committee said a capital bid to both parent authorities would be required for 2010-11 with replacement ICT public access and staff networks costing £25,000 to £30,000 one of the main priorities.
Other priorities include provision of improvements to ensure 24-hour access to library services.
This would include web access to the library catalogue and the ability to self-renew and self-reserve library items from home etc - a system already implemented by other local library services.
SPENDING PER HEAD LOWER THAN AVERAGE
Estimates for 2010-11 show that revenue expenditure on library services at Upper Norwood would be £18,840 per 1,000 population. This is substantially lower than the average Greater London revenue expenditure on library services per 1,000 population served - which stood at more than £28,000 per 1,000 population in 2007-8.
