Libraries JR to test balance of power between elected mayor and councillors

The latest judicial action over library policy will provide an important answer about the balance of power between elected mayors and all of an authority’s elected councillors, it has been claimed.

His Honour Judge Gosnell last week said the challenge to the policy set by the Mayor of Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council, Peter Davies, could go ahead.

The case is being brought by Public Interest Lawyers, the law firm behind the successful legal actions against Somerset and Gloucestershire county councils, and Surrey County Council, over their library policies.

The background to this next dispute was the setting of Doncaster’s Budget earlier this year.

On 23 February, Davies proposed his budget for 2012/13 to the council. The head of the Labour group subsequently put forward an amendment which would have allocated funds to save two closed libraries and stop 12 others from being run by volunteers.

On 5 March, the full council voted – by 43 votes to six with three abstentions – to include the proposed amendment in the budget.

But the following day the Mayor said he would not implement the budget as set by the council and would instead continue with his plan to close libraries or transfer them to volunteers.

Public Interest Lawyers argued that the law required Davies to act “wholly in accordance” with the budget as set by the council.

“The claim centres on whether the Mayor’s refusal to implement the budget can be said to be wholly in accordance with the budget,” it said.

Phil Shiner, of Public Interest Lawyers, said: “The Mayor’s refusal to implement the decision of a two-thirds majority of all of Doncaster’s councillors is not only disastrous for the future of Doncaster’s libraries, it raises a fundamental question about the elected Mayor system. 

“The claim will provide an important answer about the balance of power between an elected Mayor and all of an authority’s elected councillors.”

Simon Wiles, Doncaster's director of finance and corporate services, told the BBC: "We are very confident that the mayor has acted properly and in accordance with the clear legal advice he has received, and that the decisions taken will be successfully defended."

Philip Hoult