Did Croydon break the law over library?

Croydon Council stand accused of breaking the law over its joint library agreement with Lambeth, an agreement that Croydon Council terminated.

Croydon's Labour Leader Tony Newman is quoted,

"We have advice that Croydon cannot unilaterally abandon the joint agreement and we have been told by Lambeth Council that this council has acted illegally."

Cllr Timothy Godfrey, Labour's shadow cabinet member responsible holds a letter from the DCMS which he claims indicates that the unique 112 year old Upper Norwood Joint Library agreement between Lambeth and Croydon can only be broken if both councils are in agreement.

Croydon's chief executive, Jon Rouse, refuted the claims but has agreed to the subject being debated on 2nd July, although what type of meeting this will be is still unclear as the details are not yet available on the council website.

Croydon Advertiser article, May 25 2012

This Croydon Advertiser article also touches on the catalogue of errors in Croydon's consultation process. We'll details this in a later post, thanks to the evidence passed to the campaign group by local residents.

Council flouting its legal agreement

Another library article in the local press, still not online so reproduced here.

Croydon Guardian article May 23, 2012

Croydon is accused of flouting its legal agreement to run Upper Norwood Library (UNJL) jointly with Lambeth Council.  

Whilst the UNJL consultation document gave the option to keep funding at existing levels, Croydon library campaigners are acutely aware that in the previous consultation on six Croydon libraries, Croydon chose to ignore the 'do nothing' option. Will it be the same for Upper Norwood?

The options Croydon put to Lambeth before the launch of this consultation certainly do not support continued support from Croydon:  http://www.soslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/croydons-treatment-of-upper-norwood.html but perhaps most damning is the details Inside Croydon exposed of Croydon's dealings with Lambeth early on in the process.  

News from Crystal Palace: BASHFORD BROUGHT TO BOOK - UPDATE

Residents are encouraged by campaigners to continue to send in comments to be taken into consideration by Croydon after Cllr Tim Pollard has given his assurance that comments will be taken into consideration in the consultation.


The message reads, 

 "Cllr Tim Pollard confirmed Croydon council will continue to accept comments re the provision of library services in Upper Norwood onUNJL.ENQUIRIES@croydon.gov.uk as part of (the) consultation.If you would like to support your library by asking Croydon to continue to fund our library or perhaps indeed encouraging them to invest more. The library campaign would definitely encourage you to email." 

A Campaign spokeswoman added: "And I would too. "It'll take you two minutes. "Go on, go on."

Read the full post here:


News from Crystal Palace: BASHFORD BROUGHT TO BOOK - UPDATE: BASHFORD BROUGHT TO BOOK - UPDATE   Cllr Sarah Bashford has lost the 'culture' part of her cabinet job in a reshuffle by Croydon coun...

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