Wirral Council leader Steve Foulkes' response to the libraries report

I also weIcome the ongoing work on a national library review and we will certainly be looking to take account of any recommendations that emerge from it in making any future improvements to Wirral's library services.
However, I want to do some very straight talking here. I know a lot of people won't want to hear what I have to say, but I believe it needs to be said.
In many ways the report published with the statement is no longer relevant because we have withdrawn the original decision on the Libraries. But I am very disappointed at its contents. I am disappointed not because it is critical of the decision, but because it is fundamentally flawed in its logic, and in many places it is just plain wrong. If Wirral were to be in breach of its statutory duty when the plans were implemented, then so would any number of other local authorities who would have had the same level of provision as us.
The report illustrates totally the difference between theory and reality and I had really hoped and expected that the inspector would not fall into that trap.
In theory, we could keep all our libraries open, improve our services and repair our buildings for no additional cost, just by introducing some minor changes like self service systems. In reality, the decision not to close some libraries and invest in Neighbourhood Centres will cost £2.3m next year, which is the equivalent of a 2% increase in Council Tax. Over the next three years we will also need to find another £2.4 million from revenue budgets for major repairs which will mean either increased council tax levels or cuts in services elsewhere.
If we had attempted to invest in new neighbourhood centres and keep the remaining stand alone libraries open, or to maintain a physical presence of some kind in all the current locations, which is where the logic of the report seemed to be going, then on top of £4.7m we would have needed to find another £500,000 for additional staffing costs as well as another £300,000 to boost the book fund to meet the enhanced facilities, as well as the £2m a year needed to pay for the capital investment of £20m.
Theory is a luxury we cannot afford.
There are winners and losers in this situation. Those who lobbied to keep their local library open have what they wanted. But the silent majority who do not use their library, who do not want to see their council tax increase, and who might have used one of the new neighbourhood centres because they were more attractive, more conveniently located and open longer hours are definitely the losers.
Nothing changes the fact that we are still facing a future where books will be downloaded from the net, where second hand books are easily available to buy, where the first call for information is the computer, not the library, and where the main call on libraries today is to use computers, not borrow books. Nor does it change the fact that installing and continually updating new technology in a large number of individual buildings is very expensive.
In an ideal world, we would give everyone what they want, and build neighbourhood centres, and make sure every library or centre was still within walking distance, or within reach of a mobility scooter battery, or near enough to be used by local schools for a single lesson period .But this is not an ideal world, and just because that is what people say they want, does not make it affordable for the local authority, or for all those people who would see their Council Tax go up to meet those demands.
Yes, we can always do things better. Yes, maybe there are some things in hindsight we could have changed or improved. But that doesn't alter the fact that we have to get real. We can't just look at one service in isolation from every other service we provide. There is a limited amount of money that has to be shared out to meet a whole host of demands, some of which are literally matters of life or death.
The people of Wirral need to understand very clearly what is coming. Between 2011 and 2014, this Council is going to need to save over £67 million, and that is a minimum estimate. We will have to change or go under.
If we continue to hang on to what we know, and reject that change, and if the silent majority continues to remain silent, Wirral will become an impoverished backwater with failing services, crumbling buildings and a mass exit of any investors who could help us weather the storm and allow us to become the attractive and prosperous region we deserve to be.
That's the choice we have. We can go with the politics of hope, which welcomes change and drives forward to better things. Or we can go with the politics of fear which digs in and resists any change. And fear is a very strong emotion which it is easy for politicians to exploit for their own ends. And to those politicians who play on that fear, who advocate a do nothing approach, who claim all our services can continue to operate just as they do now, I say " Come clean, be honest, tell the voters just how you intend to balance the books in the difficult times ahead."
In the end, the people of Wirral have their own destiny in their hands. It's going to be up to them what they and their children inherit from the next few years.