Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council
Caerphilly Council, forced onto the defensive in the High Court in Cardiff on 11 June, showed contempt for our small Valleys communities, fighting to hold onto libraries you can walk to.
“If you choose to live 12 miles down a farm track”, their barrister told the court, “that’s your choice!” Such is the council’s scorn for the working-class people who live not down farm tracks, but in densely populated streets around what used to be collieries.
Labour runs Caerphilly Council, but Plaid Cymru councillors have put in bids for Community Asset Transfers (CATs) of our libraries and their councillors have told people not to bother fighting.
Where Plaid leads councils in Carmarthenshire and Gwynedd, they’ve offloaded libraries and other public buildings for years. In court on Thursday, our case was that the council would be failing in their legal Public Sector Equality and Socio-Economic duties if they concentrated libraries in town centres.
Bus fares are expensive. Young children can’t travel on their own, older and disabled people may not be able to. The council claimed that, unless there was a very serious breach, it would be wrong for the court to intervene. Lots of councils have closed libraries.
But where campaigns have fought back, local authorities have lost in court. In Northamptonshire in 2018, the High Court stopped the closure of 21 libraries. The same happened in Gloucestershire and Somerset in 2011. In the Wirral in 2009, the council withdrew plans to close 11 libraries.
Still, we’ll need more than a court win to secure our libraries long term. Last month, TUC Cymru passed our motion from Caerphilly Trades Council demanding Welsh government provide ring-fenced funding for libraries and leisure centres – so that councils can’t close or offload them – and calling on any council that claims to be against austerity to pass legal no-cuts budgets.
We should use that policy to put pressure on the new Plaid Senedd. Our libraries aren’t safe in the council’s hands. Next spring, we could stand our own no-cuts candidates in council elections.
The Judicial Review has been a chess move to prevent immediate closures. Our wonderful solicitor took our case because of the strength of our campaign. Even the council barrister referred in court to how strong our campaign is.
As we’ve always said, if you fight, you can win!
