Letter: Barham Community Library will stand by our community - 'We will not be surrendering our lease'

 The painting of Titus Barham that hangs in the community library

 

Dear Editor

 

The events on Tuesday morning at the Civic Centre highlight the fact that local people and existing users of the Barham Park Complex support Barham Park as a local place that provides them with recreation as Titus Barham intended.

 

Barham Park and its buildings used to be the home of the Barham family. Titus Barham was a big local benefactor supporting local causes including Wembley Hospital, the Tennis Club in Sylvester Road and many more. Barham Primary School, where I have been a School Governor since 1994, stands on land that belonged to Titus Barham.

 

Titus was a keen Roses grower and every year he opened up his Gardens to local people for "Rose Sunday". In 1936, a year before his death, 8,000 local people attended.

 

He was due to become the Charter Mayor of Wembley in 1937 when Wembley became a Borough Council. He donated the Mace and Chains of Office and wanted all residents of Wembley (around 80,000 at the time)  to participate in the Ceremony. Sadly he died on the very day he was due to become Mayor. Wembley Borough Council went ahead with the Celebrations later and over 50,000 local people attended at tea party at the old Wembley Stadium later in the year.

 

On his death in July 1937 Titus Barham donated his home and gardens for the enjoyment of local people. The donation was made to the Wembley Borough Council.

 

It is now the responsibility of Brent Council to manage the Park and buildings as any other Park in Brent. It is the current Labour Administration that closed the Council run Barham Park Library which served the area for almost 60 years in 2011. It is the same Labour Administration that has neglected the buildings and areas of the Park since - despite wasting tens of thousands of pounds on consultants whose previous reports. are collecting the dust.

 

it is Councillor Butt and his colleagues who decided to spend another £25,000 of public money on the latest "hypothetical" Architects study without checking some very basic facts. The aim of the Architects proposals seems to be the achievement of commercial income from redevelopment for Hotel rooms, Shops, Airbnb, Offices etc. The existing tenants would be kicked out because the redevelopment would require a completely vacant site and the requisitioning of the public car park near the children area for a building materials depot.

 

The existing tenants were not consulted and when Francis Henry, from Friends of Barham Library tried to ask some relevant questions, he was interrupted and prevented from speaking by the Leader of Brent Council.

 

Brent Council pays lip service to community engagement, diversity or to being a Dementia Friendly Borough. We have already been deprived of space in Barham Park to provide an advice and outreach base for people with Dementia and their Carers. The latest proposals are aimed to deprive local people of community space which serves the diverse community in the Sudbury & Wembley area and beyond.

 

As I said earlier - the Architects have said that their re-development proposals can only progress if they have a fully vacant site. Friends of Barham Library are not going anywhere. Barham Community Library serves our community and will continue to do so. We are STANDING UP for our community and our neighbours in Barham Park - the Barham Veterans Club, The ex Gurkhas and all the others. 

 

As our email to officers of Brent Council makes clear our Lease has another 8 years to go and we have absolutely no intention of moving out.

 

The wishes of Titus Barham are clear. Barham Park - his home and gardens - are for the recreation of local people and not for Hotels or Airbnb for visitors to Wembley Stadium or shops and supermarkets that no one has asked for.

 

Our Community Library will continue to serve local people. We now need every one who cares for Barham Park (and all our Parks to rally round - so come and support us and come and support our beautiful Barham Park.

 

With best wishes

 

Paul Lorber

for Friends of Barham Library

 

 

Email to Brent Council

 

 

We write as Trustees of Friends of Barham Library in reference to yesterday's AGM of the Barham Park Trust, and in particular, the Report at Item 7 and the recommendation to Trustees at paragraph 2.2.1. 

 

It seems that, following production of the outline specification, that  the Trustees have accepted that recommendation, and are proceeding with the "Silver" option.

 

Mention was made in the meeting of the Trust generating officer time. It is clear that further officer time will be generated in connection with this recommendation. It also now seems entirely possible that the Trust (and/or the Council (Capital Grant funds)) may incur yet further consultant's fees. Appreciating the responsibilities of charity trustees ourselves, we would clearly like to assist in preventing  unnecessary expenditure, whether of officer time, scarce Trust unrestricted funds or indeed Capital Grant funds. 

 

We had hoped to inform the Trustees at the meeting as part of Francis Henry's contribution on our behalf, that FoBL has a Lease of Unit 4 at Barham Park and full exclusive possession until 6th October 2031. There is no landlord break clause in that Lease.

 

Not having previously been asked about our position,  as charity trustees, we thought it only responsible now to inform you that FoBL will not be surrendering its Lease - nor, therefore, giving vacant possession of Unit 4 at any point prior to expiry of our contractual term.  We shall also, of course, expect the Barham Park Trust as our Landlord to meet in full its obligations of quiet enjoyment under our Lease.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Francis Henry

Paul Lorber

Robert Wharton

Trustees of Friends of Barham Library.

 

PS. You may wish to advise all the Trustees.

 

Barham library campaigners win 15 year lease on Barham Lounge for community library

Barham  library campaigners cracked open a bottle of champagne this afternoon when Cllr Michael Pavey used the chair's casting vote to award a 15 year lease to the campaign for the Barham Lounge.
This will provide a permanent home to the campaign which has run two community libraries from Sudbury Town station and Wembley High Road since the original Barham Library was closed 5 years ago.

In opening remarks Cllr Pavey admitted that the process had taken far too long and had been 'shambolic'. He was scathing about an officers' report which he said had undervalued the importance of the interview process in which the two sets of bidders were questioned by a panel of three. All the panellists agreed that Barham Library Campaign had come out the strongest in the interviews but this had been down-played in the report.

He added that problems had persisted with a Supplemental Note from the Barham Park Trust Property Adviser only being made available two hours before the meeting.

Cllr Denselow sent his apologies to the meeting but asked that his thoughts be read out to the meeting. These favoured the Barham library bid.

Cllr Pavey said that despite attempts to make the issue party political each councillor present would give their independent views.  Cllrs Hirani and McLennan said that on balance they favoured the Pivot Point bid as they throught this would deliver more of what the community needed.

Cllr Eleanor Southwood, particularly on the interview evidence felt the Barham library campaign bid was stronger. Her view was supported by Cllr Pavey, particularly in terms of providng services that had suffered cuts due to local government funding reductions. Both voted in favour of the Barham library bid.

As the vote was 2-2 Cllr Pavey used the chair's casting vote in favour of the library bid.

The Planning Inspector calls on Brent Civic Centre on July 22nd

The closure of half of Brent's libraries continue to reverberate throughout the borough. After the controversial Kensal Rise planning committee deferral and the revised Cricklewood plans, we have a Planning Inspectorate hearing at the Civic Centre on July 22nd into the Barham Park complex of buildings which includes the closed down Barham library.

 On their website Friends of Barham Library write:

A Planning Inspector will hold “informal sessions” to consider Brent Council's Appeal against Refusal of their planning application on Tuesday 22 July at the Civic Centre Empire Way starting at 10a.m.

Brent Council submitted a planning application to change the use of the closed Library space and other parts of the building away from general ‘community uses’. they did so to enable ACAVA to convert most of the building to 29 artist studios for rent.

Friends of Barham Library and others opposed this. The Planning application was REFUSED by the Planning Committee by 6 votes to 1 in November 2013.

Despite this clear decision the Labour Councillors running Brent decided to use taxpayers money to Appeal against the decision of the Council’s own Planning Committee. The Appeal will be decided by an independent Planning Inspector and this is why they are holding these informal session.

Friends of Barham Library will make representations to the Planning Inspector and continue to oppose the Appeal as the consequence is the effective taking away of the buildings in Barham Park away from local people.

The actions of Brent Council are a direct contradiction with the agreement of 22 October 1936 when Titus Barham gifted his home to the people of Wembley when he expressed his wish as follows:

“The settlor is desirous that (his home and gardens) shall be preserved for and dedicated to the recreation of the public”

In our view Brent Council should honour this wish.

Planning Committee upholds community use of Barham Park Library

 
Guest blog by Philip Grant

At Wednesday's (November 13th)  Brent Planning Committee meeting the Planning Officer's recommendation to grant permission for a change of use of the former Barham Park Library building from D1 (Community Use) to B1 (Business Use) was rejected by the committee, by 6 votes to 1 vote, with 3 abstentions.

The committee were not satisfied that there were grounds for over-riding Brent's Core Policy CP23, which states that 'existing community and cultural facilities that support community participation and development will be protected, or their loss mitigated where necessary.' The Planning Officer's recommendation had been based on a Community Facilities Assessment produced by an unidentified Council Officer, which claimed that there was no need or demand for the former library space as community facilities. This was based on the existing room at the Barham Park buildings which is available for short-term hire only being occupied for 11% of the time it was available (although this was at a time when before it was refurbished, and was not being actively "marketed" by Parks Service), and there being other community facilities in the area which could be hired anyway, such as church halls and school buildings.

Changes ahead for Barham Park

The future of buildings in Barham Park and proposals on the open space are due for discussion at the Brent Executive on March 12th.  The buildings are falling into disrepair and proposals for leasing them to external organisations are included in the officers' report.  The issue is complicated by Trust restrictions on the use of the buildings which apply.

Present accommodation:

The report  LINK also includes options for the Barham Park open space. One proposal is for an 'Eco Park' and would involve:

• Continuation of the community woodland planting from the roadside to the railway
• Creation of meadow habitats and bulb planting
• Redesign and replanting of the maple garden and potentially the mature conifers
• Pond and boardwalk creation especially for educational use
• Bee hives and communal food growing areas
• Sensory garden possibly established in the silver jubilee garden and/or in the rose terrace
• Removal of fencing which currently segregates the park into two
• Re-landscape area to rear of war memorial by regrading and replanting with a community orchard
• Indigenous planting to encourage indigenous wildlife species

Children miss out on half-term library activities

Half-term holiday and time for children to take part in the much publicised 'Word Up!' events at their local library. Except of course for those who use one of the six libraries closed by the Council.  These are the events that should have happened this week:

• Monday 24 October: Create your own heritage collage – Tokyngton Library
• Monday 24 October: Create your own rangoli patterns – Barham Park Library
• Tuesday 25 October: Handa’s surprise: create your own basket – Kensal Rise Library
• Tuesday 25 October: Create your own Diwali diya lamp – Neasden Library
• Thursday 27 October: Create your own Diwali diya lamp – Tokyngton Library
• Friday 28 October: Create a 3D firework picture – Preston Library
• Saturday 29 October: Create your own scary Halloween mask – Tokyngton Library

Brent to decide on library disposal strategy before Judicial Review application heard

Brent Executive has been asked to decide on a strategy for disposal of the six libraries ear-marked for closure at their meeting on Monday, just one day before the Judicial review case is heard at the Royal Courts of Justice. The Council claims that this is justified by the need to avoid delays and maximise savings as long as the decisions are not irrevocable. However, they advise councillors to merely note the Save Preston Library campaigner's petition against any sale or disposal of that library 'that does not include a public library for the use of local citizens' because 'there are no current proposals put forward for the use of the Preston Road site upon sale or disposal'.

The report says the Council's initial approach will be to see if there is any alternative Council use for the buildings but states that to date the only alternative considered is use to satisfy the surplus demand for school places.


The Proposals
Kensal Rise and Cricklewood affected by Covenant in favour of All Souls College. The Council has asked the College to consider use by community groups. They have responded by saying that they wish to await the outcome of the Judicial Review and are not likely to want to deal directly with a community group, but might consider allowing occupation via the Council. The Council state that this would be dependent on All Souls agreement, variation of the covenant and a community group proposal of such economic, social or environmental benefit to the Council's are that it would out-weigh a decision to revert.

Neasden Library - leasehold (lease expires in September 2027, rent £55,000 per annum plus utilities and rates). The landlord was not interested in surrender of the lease in current conditions but agreed sub-letting to a third party. As there was 'no community interest' expressed during the consultation period and it doesn't appear suitable for school use it has been placed with local agents.

Preston Library freehold, the report says that it that the site appears suitable for a variety of uses ranging from educational use such as a private nursery to residential use. Note there is no mention of use for surplus school places as above. The Council propose to discuss suitable uses with the planning department and then instruct consultants to prepare a marketing brief for this site and Tokyngton Library which they think is suitable for an in-fill development of 2-4 houses.

Barham Library held in Trust by the Council along with other Barham Park buildings. The short-term proposal is for use by the adjacent children;'s centre on a care-taking basis and to undertake a feasibility study for the complex of buildings in the longer term.

'Flakman' under fire on library closures

Cllr Powney certainly lived up to his nickname of Flakman when he appeared at last night's library consultation in front of a passionate, vocal and rebellious audience. This followed his appearances at Area Forums last year when he had a tough time defending the Council's Waste Strategy. Powney took the flak last night from the stage while other Labour councillors sat quietly in the audience.  He made a valiant attempt to defend the indefensible (the closure of half the borough's libraries) but ended up quoting Margaret Thatcher's TINA mantra (There is no alternative).

In fact the audience came up with quite a few alternatives including abandoning the expensive Civic Centre project, getting rid of highly paid council officers, reducing opening hours rather than the number of libraries, and refusing to implement Tory-Lib Dem Coalition cuts.

Contributors emphasised the importance of libraries to the cultural life of local communities and particular emphasis was placed on their importance to young people, the economically disadvantaged and older members of the community. I stressed the importance of children having a library within independent  walking distance of their homes and described the buzz at Neasden library on a Friday evening with a homework club in progress, people working at computers and others borrowing books. Children from Braintcroft Primary School and adult learners using the recently installed ICT resources will be deprived of a vital resources which could change their lives.

After the meeting I spoke to a pensioner who despaired at losing community facilities that had been in place for years and helped many generations of Brentonians. Libraries are particularly valuable to older people because they provide both stimulation through books and valuable social contact. It is also important for them that they are within easy travelling distance.

A borough-wide 'Save Our Libraries' campaign would be one way of resolving some of the differences in approach that were evident  amongst residents at the meeting.  There is a particularly active campaign around Kensal Rise Library (45,755 visit per year at a cost of £4 per visit) and the group seemed ready to form a volunteer force to help save the library. Others were against this idea, wanting a full, properly funded service.  Such volunteer support may not be available in less affluent areas such as Neasden (117,604/£2.30) but where the library is vital to raise the life chances of the local population.  Another area of potential conflict is the '40% proposal' where all  libraries would cut their opening hours by 40% rather than closing some. It was suggested this would safeguard the future of the buildings which would otherwise be disposed of or revert to  trusts such as All Souls College, which originally provided the land. A reduction in opening hours would still impact on accessibility and jobs.

On the issue of volunteers and charities Michael Rosen, the children's poet and former Children's Laureate was absolutely clear in a recent Daily Mirror article:

It is a scandal. What this Government is doing is taking over where Thatcher left off. The library system took 150 years to build up and they are destroying it.

I am completely opposed to this idea of handing libraries over to charities and retailers. It is purely ideological and there is no justification for taking libraries out of public ownership.

Books should be free to all and not reliant on charity donations. However well-meaning, charities end up begging for money. It is another Tory attempt to break the social contract by which we look after each other through taxes

When I suggested that the Labour Council were not fulfilling their commitment to protect the most vulnerable from the Coalition cuts Cllr Powney outlined the dire  condition of the Council's finance (Readers of this blog will know that I have posted articles on this), demanded that we be realistic and said that if the Labour councillors refused to implement the cuts they would be replaced by others who would implement them away  - with the implication that they would do so less sensitively.

This is an argument that we are going to hear regularly in the Area Forums in the coming month when Ann John and Muhammed Butt appear to talk about the impact of the cuts on local services and the difficult decisions they will have to make.

Meanwhile, back to Michael Rosen and some reading for adults opposed to the cuts (from the Independent)

So angered is Michael Rosen by the Coalition's plans for welfare cuts, the children's novelist and poet paid the bulk of production costs for a new anthology called Emergency Verse, a compilation of protest poetry featuring work by more than 100 writers, including the Beat poet Michael Horovitz, Jeremy Reed and John O'Donoghue. Rosen says he is "very angry" at the roll-back of "advances" that softened "some of the worst effects of rampant capitalism", adding: "These rampant capitalists, who walk off with the majority of the wealth anyway, now want to steal our services too – people who have no other means of getting health care, education and social care will have it snatched away." The anthology was launched at the Southbank Centre's Poetry Library, and copies can be downloaded for £2.99 from www.therecusant.org.uk.

Prior to the consultation meeting Brent Fightback said:

Brent Fightback supports keeping ALL our libraries open. Once closed, they are gone for ever. We hope that, while pursuing their local campaigns, the libraries campaigners will unite and will become part of our broader campaign to defend jobs, services, pensions, benefits and the environment.

The Kensal Rise campaign can be contacted at kensalriselibraryusers@hotmail.co.uk and they have a blog LINK and a Facebook group 'Save Kensal Rise' library.

Preston library users are getting organised and I will put their details up when I have them.

The Friends of Cricklewood Library can be contacted via eric.pollock@tiscali.co.uk Information

Many authors and individuals including Alan Gibbons  and Michael Rosen have set up Campaign for the Book and Voices for the Library are asking individuals to send them statements on how important libraries are in their lives.

The Guardian has also covered the meeting using Kensal Rise as an example of wider closures  LINK