Did Croydon break the law over library?

Croydon Council stand accused of breaking the law over its joint library agreement with Lambeth, an agreement that Croydon Council terminated.

Croydon's Labour Leader Tony Newman is quoted,

"We have advice that Croydon cannot unilaterally abandon the joint agreement and we have been told by Lambeth Council that this council has acted illegally."

Cllr Timothy Godfrey, Labour's shadow cabinet member responsible holds a letter from the DCMS which he claims indicates that the unique 112 year old Upper Norwood Joint Library agreement between Lambeth and Croydon can only be broken if both councils are in agreement.

Croydon's chief executive, Jon Rouse, refuted the claims but has agreed to the subject being debated on 2nd July, although what type of meeting this will be is still unclear as the details are not yet available on the council website.

Croydon Advertiser article, May 25 2012

This Croydon Advertiser article also touches on the catalogue of errors in Croydon's consultation process. We'll details this in a later post, thanks to the evidence passed to the campaign group by local residents.