You'll find that Carillion doesn't actually own Ealing Libraries, the service was contracted out by Ealing council. Whether or not the company can sell on the service they are contracted to supply to the council will depend on the nature of the contract. Ealing is probably in the same boat as Harrow, Croydon and Hounslow, which have also contracted out library services to Carillion. My principal gripes about the current Ealing library service (my local branch is the Central Library) are (a) the considerable reduction in both speed and service offered for borrowing library books from other council libraries both within the borough and across London and (b) the seemingly random filing system for fiction, which bunches different categories of fiction in completely different places. As far as (a) is concerned, London used to have an amazing system - if your borough didn't have a particular book, your local library could borrow it from another borough. That system seems to have gone by the board - I was quoted a week or more to get a book from another Ealing borough library, and to allow a month to get a book from Harrow. And that was for books that were currently in stock and available for loan.I belong to a reading group where members span 4 London boroughs - Ealing seems to offer by far the worst service with the narrowest selection of titles. And none of the other members live in a Carillion-run library service borough.
Susan Rowe ● 3042d