At the upcoming annual council budget-setting meeting, Labour Councillors are bringing forward proposals to re-allocate funding from Green Party vanity projects into restoring vital basic services and tackling disadvantage, including reversing the council’s plans to re-introduce library fines for children.

At last year’s budget, Labour won support to abolish library fines for children in order to remove barriers to access. Penalty fees and late charges deter those on low incomes and with a chaotic home-life from accessing books and safe library spaces. Restoring these fees and charges would be even more punitive in this cost-of-living crisis.

Despite agreeing to Labour’s proposals last year to abolish library fines for children and replace them with an incentive-based model (successfully piloted in Los Angeles) that allows children to “read away” their fines and narrow the ‘library-use gap’ between affluent and disadvantaged kids – the Greens are trying to bring back penalty fees at the earliest opportunity.

Labour have found funds to maintain the library fines amnesty for children that we introduced last year to tackle disadvantage, remove barriers to entry, and target the educational attainment gap.

Labour’s co-leader of the opposition and finance lead, Cllr Carmen Appich said:

“In this acute cost-of-living crisis, we must do all we can to support the most vulnerable and tackle disadvantage. Many working-class families will stop using libraries if they are daunted by the return of penalty fees and charges that the Greens are proposing. Where do their priorities lie?

“Last year our intervention at budget-time abolished library charges for children, removing barriers to access to books and reading at an early age for disadvantaged kids. The Greens have immediately tried to re-introduce those barriers this year and we won’t let them.”

Labour’s deputy leader of the opposition, Cllr Amanda Evans said:

“We made the case last year to abolish library fines for children and replace them with an incentive scheme that allowed children to ‘read away their fines’ – effectively writing off any debts for late returns by reading more library books.

“A scheme like this was piloted in Los Angeles and led to 3,500 children’s library accounts becoming unblocked.

“Clearly, reintroducing penalty fees and charges is not necessary when an incentive-scheme can be just as effective, and in this unprecedented cost-of-living crisis the last thing we should be doing is erecting more barriers between disadvantaged children and access to books, especially if we’re serious about closing the educational attainment gap.”