Volunteers to save the PM's libraries
A potentially embarrassing situation for the Prime Minister has been averted following his local authority's decision to keep libraries open with volunteer help.
Oxfordshire County Council had originally planned to close 20 of the area's 43 libraries including six in the PM's own constituency of Witney. The closures were in response to the savings that the authority had to find.
However following major protest by local residents, supported by the author Philip Pullman, they have since overturned their decision which will see libraries kept open, including those in Mr Cameron's constituency.
The saved libraries will now be staffed entirely by volunteers from next April and will put the Prime Minister's Big Society plans to the test in a very personal way.
Commenting on the situation the shadow libraries minister Gloria De Piero said, "Volunteers have a role to play in libraries, but I would be amazed if you could run libraries by volunteers alone. It is a professional job."
Not sure I totally agree with the Shadow Minister's final comment. Gloria De Piero infers the voluntary role is not a professional one. Volunteers can also be professional can they not? Let's think about Trustees, Judges, Governors. Are they not professional roles? I, and many others, think they are.
I do agree though that running the library service purely by volunteers could backfire. Volunteers need training, support and the right to say no on occasion for a number of different reasons. There needs to be a contingency plan for the service as those of us who support volunteers will know, sometimes things don't go according to plan! That said, good luck with this; there'll be many watching with keen interest.