THE news that York’s public libraries will no longer be run by City of York Council reminded me of a major problem a friend of mine had when she upgraded her home recently. I’ll start in the time honoured way of all good stories.

Once upon a time you went to the bank if you wanted money, to the supermarket for groceries and to a specialist shop for your new living room suite or your new bathroom. Then the supermarkets decided to be everything to everyone and to offer a one-stop place where you could get your bank loan, your new bed and anything else needed for domestic bliss.

The problem was that although supermarkets may know everything there is about sliced bread and washing powder, they generally know next to nothing about running a bank or installing a new bathroom. So they sub-contract that part of their business out to another company, who does know about financial dealings or home improvements and take their cut for arranging the link up. It sounds fine in theory – until something goes wrong, as my friend discovered when she decided to upgrade her house. She, being generally happy with the supermarket where she does her weekly shop, went to its website, assumed that it would ensure all its products, not just the groceries, would come up to standard, and put in her home improvement order.

She was, to put it mildly, very disappointed with the outcome. She complained to the company she had given her money to – the supermarket – who immediately referred her to the company that did the work – the sub contractor – who, on the grounds they were only doing what the supermarket told them to do, referred her back to the supermarket, who immediately referred her back to the sub-contractor, and so on and on in an endless display of passing the buck.

Meanwhile my friend was left seething for months while nothing was done.

So what has her tale of woe to do with York’s public libraries?

Simply this: if you have a problem with your local library from May 1, whom will you complain to and what will happen as a result?

If you go to your local councillor, as you have been able to do since public libraries were invented, he or she may, after May 1, simply refer you to Explore York Libraries and Archives Mutual Limited which will be the official organisation charged with doing the work – putting books on shelves, running the library cafés, booking meeting rooms, etc. It, in its turn, may decide that your complaint relates to the terms of the five-year contract it will have with the council and refer you back to the councillor. Government ministers and heads of quangos have operated a similar system for decades to dodge responsibility for debacles and awkward questions, particularly questions in Parliament.

The libraries are not alone. Spending cuts mean that large swathes of services that used to be exclusively provided by council staff directly employed by councils are now provided in part or entirely by outside organisations.

Take the various home care services on which so many of our older residents depends. What happens when an elderly person doesn’t get the support they have agreed with social workers they should receive? Who will take responsibility for sorting out their problems or will they be lost in an endless circle of passing the buck? There will be more and more contracted out services as the council continues to tighten its purse strings. When things go wrong, who will sort them out?

Will the thought of the next election persuade councillors to take full responsibility - or to shuffle as much blame and bad publicity as possible onto the outside, unelected, organisation?