The legality of this approach must surely be in doubt. The Council has a legal duty under the Local Government Finance Act 1992, to set a balanced budget i.e. budgeted expenditure must be covered by funds raised by or already available to the Council. Voluntary fundraising by local community groups falls outside the relevant definitions. If £130k is required to provide the Suffolk statutory public library service then Councillors need to either find the money from Council controlled resources or reduce library expenditure. The existence of the IPS doesn’t change this.

As a principle it cannot be right that volunteer donations have to be found to run a statutory public service. Government guidelines on funding public services make this clear. If the link between tax funding and service provision is lost then the consequences are widespread and obvious e.g. an NHS hospital could say ‘Well Mr Smith yes are responsible for mending your broken leg but our funding is such that we don’t have any money for the plaster – could you let us have a cheque to cover the cost’. As Mrs Thatcher so famously used to say – NO! NO! NO!

Suffolk residents should take a tough line with their Council over this issue. There are important principles at stake.