Lies, Damn Lies, and Library Transformation

The quote in the November Brent Magazine

Brent Council's dismal record of misinformation and disinformation over public libraries, which started of course with the misleadingly named 'Transformation Project', has been highlighted again today.

The Brent Magazine, which is still flopping through letter boxes, claimed that all Brent residents were 1.5 miles from a library. Toni McConville, Director of Customer and Community Engagement for Brent Council said:

The information about the 1.5 mile distance that residents would need to travel to a library was provided by the Library Service. An assumption was wrongly made that this meant one of the council's remaining libraries rather than a library in the vicinity.

I'm sorry for the error and have pointed it out to the communications team so that the mistake is not repeated.

Graham Durham,Secretary of Save Cricklewood Library Campaign,  said:

This is the latest in a series of misleading information on library cuts.Throughout the consultation and in endless meetings Annjohnette has stated it will be 1.5 miles to a Brent library - it is now clear that this claim was utterly untrue.Any resident of Wembley or Willesden could have told the council this.

Preston Library campaigners are marching from South Kenton to Kingsbury Library on Saturday afternoon to demonstrate the distance to their nearest library following the closure of Preston Library.

Poorest Children Hit by Library Closures

Brent library campaigners have accused Brent Council of making service cuts without calculating the impact on the borough's poorest children.  Figures based on the Free School Meals (FSM) figures for the three schools nearest each library show that all but one are above the national FSM average of 21%:

Kensal Rise - 41%
Tokyngton -   40%
Neasden   -   38%
Cricklewood -31%
Barham Park 28%
Preston Park  27%
In contrast Kingsbury library,which is to remain open, serves a population with 21% FSM.



Graham Durham, of the Save Cricklewood Library Campaign commented:

' Councillors need to consider the impact on the poorest families of the library closures. It is the poorest families who cannot afford a car or the cost of public transport and who will be denied access to libraries when their local library closes.The council claims to be protecting the poor from the cuts but this is simply not happening. Alongside the government cuts in Educational Maintenance Allowance and student grant fee rises, education will be closed to the poorest children.

The Council agrees that there are an additional 250 children in each 5 year old cohort in Brent meaning an additional 3,000 children by 2020.It seems that, unless the Council changes course, this will be the generation that does not have the means to read books or have a quiet space to study.'

Save Cricklewood Library Public Meeting

SAVE CRICKLEWOOD LIBRARY

PUBLIC MEETING

Thursday February 10th 6.30pm-8pm

Cricklewood Library, Olive Road, NW2