Preston Library lives again for National Libraries Day!

Next Saturday, 9th February, is National Libraries Day. The Friends of Preston Library  will be celebrating with a special children's event in the  former Preston Library building on Carlton Avenue East.  The building is now housing extra classrooms for Preston Park Primary School and the Friends are very grateful to the headteacher, Mr John Redpath, for allowing them to use the building in this way.

The event will run from 12pm - 4pm and will include story-telling with a local author, an art corner, the pop-up library - and they are especially pleased to be able to welcome well-known children's writer, Saman Shamsie, who will be reading from her own stories and from the new Puffin Book of Magic Stories.

Do bring your children along to the library building on Saturday and help to celebrate the importance of libraries and reading in our community.

"We will not let Brent Council's cowardly, middle of the night plundering defeat us"

This morning between 2 and 3am Richard Barrett, Brent's Property Officer, raided and stripped Kensal Rise Library. About 15 workers took the books from the library and also took the murals painted in the 1930's specifically for the library along with all the plaques commemorating the library's opening by Mark Twain.

They took tables and chairs and other assorted objects including a microwave and a box of sticky tape.They were assisted in this action by about 12 police officers.

Campaigners said: 

In a meeting with campaigners last week, the new leader of the council, Muhammad Butt promised that the murals and furniture would not be taken.

We asked him to hold off stripping the library until he had organised a meeting with All Souls College, the council and ourselves.

This action this morning is proof that the council had no intention of trying to ensure that the reverter on the library had not been triggered.

Cllr Mo Butt said he wanted to listen to the community, engage with them.

This is how he listens. By taking this action he has jeopardised the ability of this community to run this library.

We may be finished with Brent council but our campaign continues. We will not let their cowardly, middle of the night plundering defeat us. 

Cllr Butt's words to us are worse than meaningless.  

They reveal what a cowardly, conniving, bunch of dishonest panhandlers they are, but what else would you expect in the Banana Republic of Brent?

Butt: A seventh library would undermine Transformation Project

There a report on BNCTV of a meeting between Kensal Rise Community Library campaigners and the Council LINK.

In his  interview Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council,says that  if the freehold of the Kensal Rise building remained with Brent Council, despite being run by volunteers,  as the campaigners had requested,  it would be a problem. It would be adding a seventh library to the six remaining in Brent and open the way for Preston and other campaigners to make a similar request. .He goes on to say that as the Libraries Transformation Project is based on six libraries this would undermine the  whole Project.

For the campaigners  a sticking point is the removal of books from the library. If they are removed by the Council could it lose its designation as  a library?

Have a look at the video and see what you think.

167,004 fewer library visits concealed by Brent Council

Ahead of a meeting tonight at Brent Town Hall, at which a “progress” report will present what SOS Libraries claim is misleading and incorrect information on the so-called “Libraries Transformation Project” to the new Labour executive, Brent SOS Libraries has submitted its own report on the library closures (LINK). It shows:

• There have been 167,004 fewer library visits since half of the borough’s libraries were closed in October compared with the same period year on year.
• 158,809 fewer books have been issued.
•  Library visits and lending have fallen 20% will continue to fall with the imminent closure of Kilburn and demolition of Willesden Green libraries.
• This has been a net loss of 191 opening hours per week.
•  Most of the users of the closed libraries ARE NOT USING the remaining libraries, as the council claims.

The report that will go before the council on Monday will fail to mention these key indicators and will misrepresent a failing, wasteful service as a success. 

Brent SOS (Save Our Seven) Libraries will present the true picture to the executive on Monday night. Representatives of the six closed libraries (Barham, Cricklewood, Neasden, Kensal Rise, Preston and Tokyngton), and of Willesden Green, which is due to be demolished this summer, will also make presentations.

This data will also be considered by Jeremy Hunt’s Department of Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS), which is investigating whether Brent Council has breached its statutory duties.

Brent SOS Libraries was asked last month to give evidence to the DCMS of Brent Council’s use of misleading and incorrect data, and of the effects of the withdrawal of the library service on local communities.

Brent SOS Libraries campaigner Samantha Warrington said: "Young people in Brent are working hard to pass their GCSEs and A levels, and the loss of study space and facilities in the local libraries closed by this administration will only make their lives harder."

Brent SOS Libraries campaigner Samantha Warrington said: "Young people in Brent are working hard to pass their GCSEs and A levels, and the loss of study space and facilities in the local libraries closed by this administration will only make their lives harder."

National Libraries Day at the Barham Park Lounge

Thanks to Brent News Company TV for this report from National Libraries Day at the Barham Park Lounge.

National Libraries Day at Preston Park School on Saturday

Barry Gardiner MP drops into crowded Preston Library meeting

I was unable to attend the recent public meeting organised by Save Preston Library Campaign. There is an account of the meeting on the Harrow Observer website HERE