Fighting Caerphilly council in the High Court!

By Mariam Kamish, Secretary Caerphilly Trades Council

Caerphilly Council, forced onto the defensive in the High Court on Thursday, 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 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
off load 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!