Ridiculous system restricts studying in Croydon Central Library

The following letter appears in this week's Croydon Guardian. 

It's headed,

and goes on to details the experiences of a woman who was attempting to use the facilities of Croydon Central Library to study for her degree. The full letter is reproduced below:

At what is a crucial time of year for so many in Croydon, needing to use library facilities to study for end of year exams, GCSEs and A levels, it beggars belief that restrictions are being placed on those wishing to study in Croydon Central Library.

Is this just another sad consequence of handing our libraries over to a builder, Carillion?

What exactly is Croydon getting from this contact with Laing, now Carillion?

• New IT has been installed, although well overdue, but library users report ongoing problems

• Phone access to our libraries has been lost, now handled via a Call Centre, and restricted to 9am to 5pm weekdays, rather than direct access to each library any time it was open.

• An appalling lack of promotion of activities. Check out the latest news tab on Croydon Libraries - Just one item, posted September 2013, promotion Black History month activities in October 2013 - hardly latest news. National Libraries Day in February went by with hardly a murmur, World Book Day on March 6 was ignored, as exposed by the Croydon Advertiser. World Book Night, an annual celebration of reading and books which takes place on 23 April, was not heard of in Croydon. And has anyone in Croydon heard of Reading Activists and the various groups for youth running in Croydon under this scheme,  funded from The Reading Agency? 

Croydon Council, like all local authorities, have a duty under the 1964 Act to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all who wish to make use of it. 

None of this sits comfortably with this legal duty.