Council row over books

Apr 15 2009 by Michelle Fiddler, Birkenhead News

WIRRAL Council has come under fire for allegedly giving away books from libraries which had been due to close.

Four libraries were scheduled to shut their doors for the last time when at the eleventh hour the Culture Secretary stepped in and ordered an inquiry into the planned closures of 11 of the borough’s 24 libraries.

Now Conservatives have accused the authority of giving away books ahead of the closures as they prepared to transfer the majority of the books stock to other library sites.

According to the Conservatives staff at Higher Bebington Library were ordered by Wirral Council to stop the give away of books as news of the halt to library closure plans filtered through.

Immediately after the Culture Secretary Andy Burnham ordered an inquiry the council suspended the closure programme.

Jeff Clarke, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Wirral South, said: “As if the selling of public books was not bad enough.

“Staff were then ordered to give away stock as they could not sell it, before the announcement that the library would stay open.

“I believe the Wirral residents will want to know why it was that staff at the Higher Bebington Library were required to sell and then give away Council Tax payers books before the doors were due to close for the final time. “This episode is symptomatic of the indecent haste at which the library closures have been handled.”

A council spokesman said: “Wirral’s libraries have never given away stock.

“Each library does a regular stock-take that allows them to make room for new books by identifying old books.

“However, these books go into the reserve stock collection, are transferred to another library or sold in book-sales.”