Brent Labour Executive Vote for Cuts

The largest public attendance at Brent Executive for years

Tonight's meeting of the Brent Executive was crowded with the public who had turned up to protest about various cuts and closure plans. Some were locked out when the room became too crowded but the mood was subdued as if everyone knew that the Labour councillors would just nod it all through. And so it came to pass.

The biggest turn-out was from Charteris Sports Centre and the various library campaigns. Speeches were eloquent and often emotional.   The Council's consultation processes once again came under attack with figures described as inaccurate and often misleading and with overwhelming lack of evidence for some of the claims made in documentation.

One library campaigner described the Civic Centre as a 'white elephant which nobody wants' and evidence of the Wembley-centric nature of the Brent Council. He said, "The Council knows the price of the libraries but not their value" and claimed closing libraries was as much a crime as burning books.

Another said that by saving money in the short-term the Council was permanently damaging the borough in the long-term.

Supporters of the Charteris Sports Centre said that it had above average use by youth and disabled groups and that the local police had said that crime was likely to go up in the area  if it closed. They were proposing a council-community partnership and condemned the lack of an Equalities Impact Assessment on the closure plans. To cheers the representatives  expressed their determination to keep up the fight.

An amendment to the budget motion from Cllr James Powney, stating that the council remains in talks over library services and Charteris Sports Centre which may have an effect on the budget, was adopted by the Executive.

Jamie Ritchie spoke on behalf of the Brent Law Centre and said that the Council had given a demonstration on how NOT to treat the voluntary sector. They should not tell an organisation that they had funding for a year and then cut it halfway through and not say that they will consult and the decide to close it before the consultation was completed. He said the Law Centre was experiencing a double whammy from the Council and the Government. He pointed out that law centres ave the authorities 10 times as much money as the amount that is spent on them. Law Centres were required more than every and demand was increasing. Deprived of such assistance people would turn to 'self-help' in the form of crime.

In a heart-felt presentation two parents who use the Three Trees Children's Centre in Kensal Rise described the strong support they had received from staff and how it had changed their lives. Councillor Ann John stated that there was no intention to remove any substantial services and that there would be consultation over changes. She insisted that no Children's Centre would be closed, but did not mention that  three planned ones will not now open.

There was no debate about the budget proposals on the Executive and no questions. There were brief presentations from the lead members, often inaudible to the public, and then each proposal was agreed unanimously.

Action will now move to the full Council meeting on February 28th where Brent Fightback will be holding a lobby from 6pm outside the Town Hall. Campaigns are urged to bring banners and placards and as many supporters as possible.

Libraries Day of Action - local campaigns

The Save Preston Library Campaign have started an e-petition on Brent Council's site. The petition reads:

Keep Preston Library Open We the undersigned petition the council to keep Preston Library open and give full consideration to alternatives to the removal of essential local library services to the Preston ward under the Brent "Library Transformation Project". We oppose the sale or redevelopment of the site that does not include a Brent public library. : We oppose the closure of Preston Library, a cost-efficient local service that is well used by all the local community.

It provides essential facilities for some of our community, particularly senior citizens and those with limited mobility, schoolchildren, and the unemployed and others who may not have access to a computer.

Preston Library service is more accessible and meets the needs of a greater number of local people than would a multimillion-pound mega-library at Wembley Stadium, to which many users would find it difficult to travel.

We demand that Brent Council give adequate time and due consideration to alternatives plans to the closure of Preston Library, including the revision of proposals for the library at the Civic Centre.

We also oppose the sale or disposal of the Preston Library site for any redevelopment that does not include a public library for the use of local citizens.

 To sign the petition follow this link. The campaign needs at least 50 signatories LINK

The campaign is holding an organising meeting at 3pm today at the library and also encouraging as many people as possible to use it and borrow as many books as possible.

There will be a public meeting in  support of the campaign on Wednesday 16th February, 7.30pm Preston Park Primary School

The Cricklewood Campaign has a public meeting on Thursday 10th February 6.30pm at 6.30pm at the library.

The Willesden and Wembley Observer petition to save ALL Brent libraries has now got 71 signatures. More are urgently needed.  SIGN HERE

Finally you can see a map of library protests across the country HERE and follow action in today's Day of Action on Library Closures HERE

Does Ed support Brent Library closures?

From today's Independent:

The Labour leader Ed Miliband said yesterday his party would back campaigns to save libraries as "a place where community is built, as families get to know each other and form friendships".

Save ALL Brent Libraries

X marks the wards where libraries are due to be closed

Despite the Council cuts being caused by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition policies, Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors are getting behind campaigns to save local libraries. Kenton Conservatives have a local petition going to save Preston library with an eye on the forthcoming by-election on February 17th and the Lib Dems are also petitioning.  At the same time some Labour councillors are unhappy with the proposals and some Brent Labour Party members are campaigning to keep all libraries open.

At the recent Brent Fightback Meeting on 'Are the Cuts Necessary' a pledge  to occupy Cricklewood Library was enthusiastically applauded as was a call for a borough-wide campaign to save all Brent libraries.

The Kensal Rise campaign has a Facebook page LINK and one has also just been set up for Preston library LINK  There are campaigns for all the threatened libraries except Tokyngton (as far as I know).

This week there are Area Consultation Forums in Wembley and Willesden where the closure proposals (officially 'Transformation Project") will be discussed and where council leaders will answer questions on the cuts in general:

Wembley ACF, Patidar House, London Road, Wembley - Tuesday 18th January 7pm
Willesden ACF, College of North West London, Denzil Road, Willesden - Wednesday 19th January 7pm

The 'Additional Paper' outlining the options considered by the Council and the financial implications is available HERE

Brent Library Closures Get National Coverage

Brent's library closures continue to get coverage in the national media. Today's Guardian has four letters following up the weekend coverage LINK

The following letter was particularly to the point:

Cuts should be administered intelligently as if by a surgeon, not willy-nilly on some economic chopping board. Libraries, more than ever, are needed by all ages, especially the young who must prepare for an overcast future. Closing libraries to save money is like cutting off the blood supply to the brain as a labour-saving device for the heart.
Leon Arden
London

 Meanwhile campaigns across the country are beginning to think about occupying the buildings if all else fails. A guide to library occupations is available HERE

Ironically Brent Library Service has a Facebook page entitled We Love Brent Libraries  It includes the following:

We Love Brent Libraries. 
We love meeting authors.
We love reading groups.
We love the information experts.
We love the free events.
We love kids stuff.
We love e-books.
We love learning.

Exactly! Councillors take note.

I couldn't help noticing that Brent's advertising hoarding on the Civic Centre site extolling the virtues of the '21st century library'  doesn't mention books for borrowing - or for pleasure!

'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

In defence of public libraries

I have been a member of a public library continuously since before I started school (in fact the old Kingsbury Library now replaced). When I move house joining  the library is the first thing I do once the electricity and gas are connected and the furniture in. As one of a large family with parents unable to give me a lot of attention, the library was in a sense my home educator, and librarians actually quite important in encouraging me to widen my reading tastes. Without a library I think I would have not progressed much educationally,

Currently I see queues of young and older people outside the Town Hall Library, waiting for it to open, not all just to keep warm but somewhere they can advance their education.  Library staff could probably tell you that young children use local libraries after school as a place to do their homework, but also an unofficial safe place to be picked up by their parents when they finish work.

 A lot of the youngsters on the Chalkhill Estate use the library, encouraged by the school and by class visits, and there is also a high usage of the internet there, for learning but also for job seeking. This is essential if we are to tackle the gap between those who have access and those who do not.  They are fortunate in being near a library not down for closure - although it will be less accessible when it is moved to the new Civic Centre.

However youngster who currently use Barham Park, Cricklewood, Neasden, Tokyngton, Kensal Rise and Preston libraries, all down for closure, will be less fortunate. The proposal for the remaining six libraries to be 'community hubs' with other council services located there does not  replace the local accessibility of these small libraries.

 Brent libraries are also the source of much cultural input including Black History Month events and other activities that bring a diverse community together including language and citizenship test classes. The Town Hall library is currently running a reading club for primary school children and others have homework clubs for children without access to books or computers at home. As the recession bites this will become even more important. 

As Greens local libraries are important to us because we believe in easily accessible community resources which do not  involve car trips.A local library is a place where children of 10 and over can easily walk to on their own rather than rely on lifts from parents - this encourages one area of independence in a landscape where children are more and more dependent on adults, with few opportunities for independent activity. Libraries even save paper, and therefore trees, through multiple lending of one book rather than individual purchases of many books - and the authors get a steady source of income, albeit it small, from public lending rights.