PRIVATE EYE

Issue No. 1452 | Library News 

STRUGGLING construction firm Carillion's weird sideline running public libraries may be set to end as the company deals with the fallout from the share price crash following a profit warning sparked by problem contracts with roads and hospitals.

Carillion acquired contracts to run libraries for four London boroughs when it bought up infrastructure management firm John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS) in 2013.  However, it ended its 15-year contract with Hounslow last month, six years early, as the council announced it was taking libraries back in house to improve them.

In Croydon, which selected JLIS to run its libraries just weeks before the company was acquired, the cabinet member for libraries is now Timothy Godfrey, who was a staunch opponent of the outsourcing deal when it was agreed.  He told local media that the end of the Hounslow contract meant there would have to be "alterations" in how libraries in Croydon are run, given that the services used a combined stock of physical and digital books while both were run by Carillion.

Carillion's troubles are also embarrassing for the government's Libraries Taskforce, which highlights the outsourced libraries run by the firm in its "shaping the future" toolkit as an innovative and marvellous approach.