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1024   23 June 2004  

And also -

Who's in Charge?

Address by Tim Coates, Publisher and Bookseller
at DCMS Ministerial Seminar, London, 21 June 2004

Photo courtesy Roger Tagholm, Publishing News

"Since the publication of my Report, at the end of April, I have had an overwhelmingly positive response.  The Report has been widely covered in the Press both local and national.  I have had dozens of calls and messages from library users expressing support and some asking for help in their local area. A significant number of retired librarians have been generous in their praise, saying that these things should have been said a long time ago.  There has also been support from many library staff - those who serve the public, and who find themselves unable to convey their message to their own Management, that the public need is not being well served in many libraries, which makes their own life very difficult.  Particularly, they wish they had a better book stock.  And there is widespread agreement that opening hours are too short: one wonders why action to remedy this has not been taken before now.  During the recent local elections the report was praised for stressing the important role of local politicians, who are often overwhelmed by their Council officials.  I have been, and am being, asked to help in several Councils. I am receiving requests every few days from Chief Executives' offices, to discuss the questions that arise in their own Councils and to help make improvements.  I have also received similar requests from the Scottish Parliament (who don't work through the DCMS/MLA) and also from a large library contractor in America.  I am happy to undertake these projects.   Finally, Lord McIntosh, and his Shadow Julie Kirkbride, kindly and generously gave time to listen to my views.  I am grateful to them. 

"There are particularly difficult problems in addressing the use of funds within each Council. The management structure of councils, and the way responsibilities are allocated, do not always lead Library officers to seek cost savings and improved efficiency. They fear that savings will merely lead to reduced budgets.  As a consequence, there are (in all the Councils with whom I have had dealings) huge pockets accumulated over many years, generating excess and unnecessary cost. The practices for auditing libraries are out of date and require the service to operate over-elaborate and very expensive systems.  And many LA employment contracts are counterproductive to providing a flexible, efficient and attractive Library service.  None of these are problems that the senior Library officer can solve.  Solutions can only be found, indeed the problem can only be properly identified by Chief Executives - and ultimately by elected Councillors.  Each Council has to find its own way to solve these problems, if the service is to improve. This is where the hard work needs to be done quickly.

"When I look at the user surveys for Council libraries I am struck by the role they play within a local community.  Very few users come to any library from more than half a mile or a mile away. They are vital parts of the local communal landscape.  And that is the way to approach the service itself -  not as something that is "Borough-wide" or "County-wide" but as a collection of essential places of resource for people living close by.   Being "accessible" to local communities is a very powerful strength of all libraries.  They provide a worthwhile and serious contrast to other such community buildings as pubs and clubs: they are for reading, learning, information and study, and that difference is a key component of their value

The American correspondence has revealed that despite Americans having access to far more large bookstores, and many more television networks, the appetite for borrowing books from US libraries has not declined in twenty years. They attribute this readily to the maintenance of the quality of the book stock and regard it essential that 15-20% of the available funds are spent on books.

"The only disapproval of my Report has come from some library professionals who fault the analysis on the grounds that the author is "just a bookseller".    Of course I am not just a bookseller, I am a business analyst who has achieved some success, particularly in the field of reading and literacy.  I am a manager of operations that needed to change and improve and have many years marketing experience - and I am a parent and a person who reads widely and writes and publishes both on paper and on the World Wide Web.  Moreover I am proud of being a bookseller: it is an honourable profession that has transformed its work in twenty five years, and it is important that those who manage the Library Service should embrace, and even concede to, others outside their profession who have insight into what they do. There is a need to listen to property managers, marketing experts, designers, financial analysts and HR specialists, for these are professions that currently have no voice in the public library service  The library world is too closed.  The advice that for too long has been given to Councillors and to Ministers, reflects too closely the interests of professional librarians, and not closely enough the interests of the public.

  • That needs to change - and the need is urgent.

"Recent figures, showing an increase in library-usage, are of course welcome  But they also indicate an enormous increase in the cost per visit, when the price of installing the computers for the People’s Network is included.   In 2002-3 (which are now the most recent figures available) it cost nearly £4 to visit a public library (whatever the length of visit), whereas in 1997 the cost was just over £2.   And we all know that a visit to the internet cafe is unlikely to cost more that £1 or £2 per hour. 

The management problems which have been correctly identified by the Audit Commission, have not gone away.  I know that tremendous investment and energy has been placed on the e-future, but I believe that this has to be put in the context of what a library needs to be now, for its local people.   The balance of endeavour has swung too far away, and it should be re-adjusted to meet their immediate needs. That is why people feel so strongly about their local libraries, and why become so cross when they are not maintained or are taken away. They no longer trust Councils to understand what they need in a library, and they have good reason to feel that way.

"In my Report I made recommendations for Councils, for the MLA, for the Audit Commission - and for the development of a stronger network of "Friends" groups.   I also proposed that half-a-dozen Councils should be invited to come forward, where there was a serious and resilient desire to solve these problems.  We could then work with those Councils in order to show what could be achieved and how changes might be made.  A Council should not step lightly into such a programme, for while it would bring enormous benefits to the residents of the communities involved, it would at the same time mean difficult transitions, needing time and attention to achieve its aims.  However, unless we undertake this work, I do seriously believe the Library Service is in grave trouble, and I do not willingly withdraw the observations that I have made previously about the future.

"I am eager and determined to do what I can to improve the service.  I believe my Report sets out a realistic plan for action, and I offer it to Lord McIntosh and Tessa Jowell - as I would to any other Party, for I have never believed this is to be  Party political issue.  

  • It should be our intention, within a time-frame of not more than three years, to restore the public use of the library service and to improve the value for money which it delivers for the public"

Tim Coates


Photo courtesy Roger Tagholm, Publishing News

June 2004

What is your perception of your own public library?  Drop me a line

And if you want to contact Tim Coates, E-Mail him at ..............

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1025  12 July  2004  

Dangerously misinformed

"Planning", in its popular sense of town-and-country planning and development control, is poorly understood.  As a specialist planning barrister by profession, I can understand laymen's confusion over a number of its key concepts.

But I cannot and do not forgive senior politicians who peddle mischievous and ill-informed fallacies about what "planning" can and cannot achieve.  The system has become grossly overloaded with popular expectations, which ill-informed politicians do nothing to dispel.  Among the most destructive current misunderstandings relate to -

Losing school playing-fields;
Imposing quotas for "affordable housing";
Housing for "rural residents"

The clue to understanding "planning" is to grasp its limitations, as a legal and administrative system.   As a control system, its purpose is not to determine precisely what shall be done with every parcel of land.  It is rather to state the range of uses for which any particular site is suitable, given its physical and locational characteristics.  The distinctive genius of economic regulation at English law has always been to allow proper room-for-manoeuvre, for the operation of market forces.  And in each of the three above sectors, this simple principle is commonly disregarded.

Losing school playing-fields   The lovable Tory clown Boris Johnson has condemned John Prescott for granting planning permission too easily for housing development "on school playing fields", thus constraining school sports activities.  What nonsense!  It is difficult to imagine a school playing-field that would not make an ideal housing site: how could John Prescott refuse?  Whether or not the land is actually used for sports or housing is a matter for the owners, not for the planners - it is a matter for the market, not for regulators.  Boris should do his homework, and adjust his targets accordingly.

Imposing quotas for "affordable housing"  It has become a common practice for local planning authorities (originally with the profoundly misguided approval of Maggie Thatcher) to force private housebuilders to allocate part of each housing site for "the poor" - by way of a range of "affordable housing" requirements.   Again, this constitute a grave abuse of the planning system, because it oversteps the line between land-use control and ownership.  Planning permission may of course be granted for housing - but it is impermissible for the planning authority to dictate who shall occupy those houses!  In legal terms, these devices are a nonsense, but a long-suffering housebuilding industry puts up with them, because the State might come up with something worse.

Finally, housing for "rural residents".  This is the current fallacy, from the New Forest to the Lleyn Peninsula.  Politicians talk about granting planning permission for housing "to be occupied by locals", variously defined.  But it is impossible for such constraints to be properly imposed under the Planning Acts.  They have been imposed by owners (e.g. local housing associations, concerned with rural depopulation and regeneration) as part of a tenancy package, and that is lawful; but it would be an abuse of the Planning Acts to allow them to be used for this purpose.

Local authorities are under great pressure to control every jot and tittle of their physical environment.  If that were to be achieved, new legislation would be necessary.  But for the present, our politicians should learn more about the governmental tools at their disposal, and tread more carefully.

What do you think?  Drop me a line

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