On the radio earlier this morning, to talk about the county council’s belated admission that charging people to use computers in libraries was never a good idea and hasn’t worked.

Councillors this morning will be asked to scrap the charges. They are likely to raise only £9,000 this year, instead of the £108,000 predicted.  Not only that, they’ve seen computer usage in our libraries plummet (a report last September said there had been a 54 per cent drop in use).  And there’s been a drop of more than ten per cent in visits to the library in October-December 2018 compared to the same period the previous year – hardly in keeping with the council’s pronouncements about seeking to put libraries at the heart of the community.

All of this was entirely predictable – in fact Liberal Democrat councillors predicted it when we opposed the charges being introduced in the first place a year ago.  The same thing happened when charges were introduced for parking at the Park & Rides, and usage fell by 14 per cent.  (Liberal Democrat councillors opposed those charges too).  When the computer charge figures looked bad in September, six months on, I proposed that the charges be scrapped there and then, but was outvoted by the Conservative majority.

It’s not just about money and footfall, though, it’s about a fundamental principle of libraries (and computers in libraries) being key to reducing, not increasing, inequality and isolation.  Charging people to use computers flew in the face of that, and I for one won’t mourn their end.