CILIP subscriptions

More than once, Tim Coates's Good Library Blog has claimed that large numbers of public library authorities pay CILIP subscriptions for their staff. He, and one or two commenters on his posts, claim that if this were not the case, libraries would have plenty of money for resources. Further, they imply that the underfunding of public library services  under the current and previous governments is a figment of the imagination, that public libraries are in fact well-resourced, but that the money is wasted on salaries and CILIP subscriptions for overpaid professional librarians.
There is  a good case to be made for employers  supporting their staff's professional memberships.  But Tim's claims are wrong.
I and others have asked Tim for evidence. I have worked in libraries for 29 years, in a variety of sectors of the profession, and have never had my CILIP, or before 2002, my Library Association or Institute of Information Scientists, subscription paid for me. It emerges he knows of "more than two" library authorities who pay CILIP subscriptions, but  he declines to identify them. Over at Michaels's 025.04 blog*  he has set up a poll. So far 231 people have voted, and only 4% have a CILIP subscription paid for them by a public library employer.

* The name, 025.04, is a librarian's joke, it being the Dewey Decimal classification class number for library operations.