Council employs bouncer to protect library staff

A council spent nearly £1,000 on a bouncer to protect staff at a library from ''unruly'' school children. Cllr Derrick Murphy, cabinet member for cultural services at Norfolk County Council, said the library in King's Lynn was plagued by children ''running about screaming and shouting''. He claimed the children terrorised and tormented two female librarians at the site and police were not taking appropriate action.

The security guard was also tasked with tackling groups of people hanging around near the library entrance drinking in evenings. Cllr Murphy said: ''It was very intimidating for staff. The police were not doing anything about it. ''Children go into the library and they run around and make a lot of noise. They were engaging in anti-social behaviour. Children were running around shouting and screaming.



''This was not 'children being children', this is anti-social behaviour as laid out in law. The vast majority, in fact 99.9 per cent of people going to the library, act perfectly normal but unfortunately there was a small minority that were not. We have a duty of care and responsibility to our staff to provide a secure and safe environment. This was a temporary ad-hoc solution has nipped the problem in the bud.''

The council forked out £13.25 an hour on a security guard to patrol inside the library for three hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for six weeks. It is estimated to have cost the taxpayer around £1,000. A council spokesman said the guard wore a white shirt, black trousers, black jacket and fluorescent armband.