Labour Hand Library Role to Major Party Donor

Labour-run City of York Council has handed a key role in delivering their £600,000 cuts to library services to one of Labour’s biggest financial backers.

Owen Trotter, who has given £55,521.75 to York Labour since 2019, including £10,000 straight into the coffers of the City of York Council Labour Group, was nominated as City of York Council's director on the board of Explore York Libraries and Archives. His nomination was approved at a Full Council meeting on 18 September.

Liberal Democrat councillors voted against Mr Trotter's nomination.

With libraries facing staff reductions, service closures, or shorter opening hours, Liberal Democrat councillors say Labour’s decision shows that they are out of touch with local communities. 

Labour’s £600,000 cuts are set to hit every corner of the city, while the person now charged with helping deliver them is a man who has bankrolled the very councillors making the decision. 

Councillor Christian Vassie, Lib Dem Spokesperson for Culture, Leisure, Human Rights and Communities said: 

"Cllr Claire Douglas and York Labour are taking Owen Trotter’s money with one hand and handing him a position of influence with the other.  

“I have no issue with Mr Trotter on a personal level but it is shocking that the Labour administration does not appear to have considered how this appointment could look to the public. Last week’s Full Council meeting also revealed that, in a city packed with cultural expertise and experience, the Labour administration did not even consider anyone else for the role of the city council’s director on the board of Explore.  

“There is no sign that Labour is abandoning its threatened cuts, so I fear we will again have to fight to protect the mobile library service that is so valued in rural wards that don't otherwise have access to libraries."