CHILDREN as young as one could have their library accounts fined if their books are not returned on time.

Book borrowers across the county are set to see a raft of new charges brought in from September 19, including the fining of children, in an effort to rake in funds for Hampshire County Council.

Youngsters aged six to 17 are currently able to rent and return books without the threat of a fine, even if returned past the due date.

Following a meeting of Hampshire’s culture communities and rural affairs committee last Friday, children who do not return books on time will be fined five pence per day on each item, with a maximum potential fine of 40p per item.

Councillors even went further than the advised guidelines on fines for children, extending the penalty to library users aged five and under despite the report suggesting an exemp-tion for children of this age range.

Among other charges ready to take effect from September include new overdue charges for children and adults using mobile libraries of five and 15p per day respectively.

There will also be new 10p charge for reserving children’s books, a £2.50 charge for renewing books borrowed from other libraries and a 60p charge for reserving large print books – services that are all currently provided free of charge.

Alan Gibbons, a children’s author and education consultant who has visited a number of Hampshire schools in the past, said that authorities should be doing everything in their power to encourage reading among children, and that fines were counterproductive.

He said: “Is it really such a crime for a child to hang on to a library book longer than they should?

“The UK has fallen from seventh to 25th in international reading studies in ten years.

“One of the reasons given is that our kids spend too little time reading for pleasure.

“We should do everything we can to get them reading. Fines for kids are not going to help one bit.”

Late fees for children and young people had been abolished by the council in 2005 out of concern fines could become a ‘perceived barrier’ to young readers using library services.

Reintroducing them before the end of the year could potentially generate an extra £20,000 a year at a time when finances are ever tightening, the authority says.

The council insists that with roughly half of the 33,513 children’s books on loan last year returned ‘long over due’, the new charges are as much to do with ensuring books are returned on time as generating money.

It said: “The main purpose of this is to encourage customers to return children’s books on time, thus increasing the availability of the books to other customers.

“At the moment there is no incentive for this to be done if no overdue charges are made.”

The same report reveals however that even in their current state, late return fines constitute the second largest source of income for county libraries, with £300,000 on average raised each year through adult user fines alone.

These will remain the same at 15p per day per item.

A number of services designed to help customers avoid returning books late are already in use, including email notifications, drop boxes and online and telephone renewal services.

Keith Chapman, Hampshire’s executive member for culture and recreation, said: “The re-introduction of children’s fines is to encourage children and their parents to bring books back for other borrowers to enjoy.

“There are currently over 33,000 children’s books, which are long overdue, sitting in people’s homes.

“This is a huge loss for the county’s library service as well as other borrowers.

“We will be informing customers well in advance of the changes, as well as collecting borrowers email addresses to send out reminders that their books are due back in two days before they incur a charge.”

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