Library defeat but a battle worth fighting

I was unable to make the High Court this morning to hearing the ruling on Brent library consultation because I had commitments in a local school. However, I am pleased tp reproduce below the item posted on Brent Greens Blog by my colleague Shahrar Ali:

Today the People of Brent learned the sad news that they had not succeeded in their High Court battle to overturn the Council's plan to axe half of the borough's libraries (background).

I could sense the anxiety amongst my fellow Brentonians before the judgement was delivered. I reassured my neighbours that we did not know the result yet, but it seemed most of them did not dare believe that we would hear good news today, simply to protect against greater disappointment of a frustrated hope.

The truth is that whilst Justice Ouseley's judgement must be respected for what it is, his written judgement strikes me as a piece of legal casuistry in the main. Of course, points of law must be attended to, but in their attention one is always left with a judgement to make, whether on balance of probability or the spirit of the law as drafted. Even the most impartial observer could be left wondering whether arguments had been won, as opposed to counter-assertions (in this case the Council's) simply affirmed by the judge.

The Judgement (Case No. CO/4957/2011) summarises the main pieces of law in contention then itemises the grounds which Justice Ouseley takes to have not been demonstrated in law:

1. Unlawfully ignoring the role which community libraries and groups could play in fulfilling the s7 duties (Public libraries Act 1964)
2. Unlawful failure to consult
3. An unlawful failure to assess needs
4. Breach of the public sector equality duty

However, many of the judgements appear, in reason, to be question-begging:

"I cannot see that it is unlawful for the Council to start the process by warning the groups, as in effect it did, that its approach would be that alternatives had to achieve the same level of savings for the same level of service as the Council's own proposals." (para 77)

But no piece of law is going to circumscribe consultation down to this level of detail. The question is whether this was a fair constraint, to effectively debar solutions that did not conform to a pre-decided lowest common denominator budget.

Later still, the Judge writes: "The Council's approach was entirely consistent with the requirement in s7(2) that the provision of library services by other menas be "appropriate"." (para. 80)

That sounds more like an assertion than an argument.

By some textual anomaly, moreover, the following appears in the introduction without any qualification, simply stated as fact, not as an argument from our side:

"The public consultation had been unfair since the Council had not told the public what it needed to know about the running costs of libraries so that groups could make informed responses in support of voluntary arrangements, and had not been told the basis upon which the Council would appraise their alternative proposals." (para. 4)

Yes, I agree that this is true Justice Ouseley.

Overall, I am bound to say, this was a very disappointing and dispiriting judgement. I salute the people of Brent for bringing this case. My fear now is that Brent Council will feel itself emboldened in this course of action, obviously they will feel vindicated, but the reality is that they have lost the confidence of the people they are meant to serve.

Let the People of Brent unite in their common endeavour to safeguard our community from this assault on our local libraries. We can despair, but we shall also regroup - with the same practical intelligence and determination we have already shown, to find a better way forward.

This is a sad day for Brent; but also a day on which the Citizens of Brent who give a damn about lifelong education and protecting the vulnerable from abandonment should hold their heads up high. Just not in the High Court.

Libraries judicial review ruling expected on Thursday

The judgement on the judicial review of Brent's libraries closure plans is expected to be handed down in Court on Thursday, October 13 at 10am

The Court room has yet to be notified. The outcome of the case will be stated at the hearing and then there are likely to be short arguments by the barristers about what should happen next. The hearing is expected to last no longer than 45 minutes

Please come to the High Court  on Thursday if you can. The Royal Courts of Justice entrance is on the Strand, London WC2A 2LL. See map at http://www.royalcourtsofjustice-events.co.uk/contact-us

Further news will be posted as soon as it is available..

DCMS still in libraries dialogue with Brent Council

I have received this response from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport regarding my request for a public inquiry into Brent library closures LINK

Dear Mr Francis,

Thank you for your August letter to the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, expressing concern about library closures. Your letter has now been passed on to the libraries’ policy team in the DCMS as they are responsible for monitoring and assessing all correspondence to the Department on library services. 

DCMS officials have met with officers from Brent Council and are in the process of considering all the relevant evidence and all the issues. The Department will continue to maintain dialogue with the local authority. Once all the relevant issues have been considered, the Secretary of State will decide whether or not to intervene, or whether further actions on the part of Brent Council are required. It may be helpful for some background information to be provided to you on the subject of library services.

The Government is committed to championing the public library service. Libraries can and do contribute to a range of local and national government priorities – for example, they can help people access a whole range of educational materials, find employment or get online support for many issues such as health and well-being improvement; and libraries work with parents, schools and colleges to support education and learning agendas. All these connections can have positive benefits for communities.

Decisions about library services, both before and after consultation with local communities, are a matter for the local authority in the first instance. The Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, has  several duties imposed on him  under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 this includes the duty to  superintend the delivery of the public library service provided  by local authorities. Developments concerning library services across England are being carefully monitored and assessed by officials. The Minister for Culture, Ed Vaizey MP, has written to every local authority in England to remind them of their responsibility under the Act to provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ library service. In that letter he repeated the key findings from the report of the inquiry that was held in 2009 into proposed closures of libraries by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council: that when re-organising library services it is important that authorities have a strategy, that they have considered the needs of their local communities and that they have consulted local people.

The closure of a library does not of itself signal an automatic breach of the 1964 Act. Sometimes a library authority will close or consider closing a library to ensure a more efficient service across its geographical area overall and this will be based on a local assessment of library needs at the material time.

The Department takes very seriously compliance by local authorities with their statutory duty to understand the local need for public library services and to provide a comprehensive and efficient service to match those needs. DCMS is aware of the judicial review claim against the London Borough of Brent. The Department has also received correspondence in relation to public library services in Brent and is in the process of considering these.

Brent’s  plans are being considered as part of our monitoring processes for library authorities across England. No decision to intervene in the case of Brent has been taken but we are monitoring this case along with others. Consideration by the Secretary of State of whether or not any statutory powers should be used to assess an authority’s compliance with the 1964 Act will be made on a case-by-case basis and after careful consideration of all relevant facts and issues.

Keeping Up with Brent Cuts

I reproduce below an extract from the weekly digest of the local press I circulate to Brent Green Party members. It provides an over-view of the latest news on cuts. The Willesden and Brent Times (WBT) e-edition can be accessed HERE  and the Harrow Times HERE

The contrast between Ann John's comments and the WBT editorial is interesting. The financial reasoning behind the Kingsbury High School academy decision is also significant.

HOW CAN WE AFFORD NEW CIVIC CENTRE WWOp14 (lead letter),  PLAN WILL COST US FOR NEXT 25 YEARS WBTp16, HOW WILL THIS BE PAID FOR? HTp24 Letter from Shahrar Ali as Green Party GLA candidate for Brent and Harrow questioning the financial and environmental claims made for the new Civic Centre currently under construction.
ROAD SWEEPING REDUCTIONS 'WILL MAKE US THE DIRTIEST OLYMPIC BOROUGH' WBTp2 Martin Francis criticises Brent Council's proposed cuts in street cleaning and the abandonment of the seasonal leaf service.
LIBRARY PLANS ARE 'UNLAWFUL' WWOp1 Coverage of the first day in court of library campaigners' application for a judicial review of the Council's decision to close 6 of the 12 Brent libraries. The claim is that the decision failed  to take into account local needs, could lead to indirect discrimination and that the decision was 'predetermined'.
LIBRARY SELL-OFFS ON HOLD WBTp4 Council plans to sell-off two library sites were deferred until August at Monday's Executive due to the judicial review.
JOBS FEAR AS HOSPITALS TRUST FACES £92M FUNDING CUT WBTp2 The NW London Trust (Central Middlesex, Northwick Park, St Marks) is to lose 24% of its budget. Doctors say that it cannot achieve these savings and will fall short by £25-40m.  Health Emergency say that 'it is the people whose care can be put off who will suffer. It is people waiting for operations, older people who need long term treatment and front line staff who will lose out. If staff do not lose their jobs, their their workload will increase....The government has asked for a cut too far'.
CALL FOR ACTION OVER HOSPITAL WAITING LISTS WBTp5 Hospital waiting lists have soared by 10% in Brent with 3,000 people on the lists.  Cllr Zaffar Kalwala (Labour, Stonebridge) says expected cuts will make it worse. The Trust confirmed the rise but said they are on track to better their 18 week target for referrals within the Trust.
NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICE REVAMP IS 'NOT TO MUCH TO WORRY ABOUT WBTp5 21 sergeants in the Safer Neighbourhood Teams will have to reapply for the 16 jobs that will remain after cuts. Chief Supt Gardner said that the wards to be reduced are still being considered but that the issue had been anticipated and that Brent invested in three detective sergeants and four detective constables to investigate neighbourhood crime ;so in fact this will not impact on Brent'.
HOMELESSNESS TO 'SOAR' AS CUTS BITE SAYS CHARITY WBTp9 Cricklewood Homeless Concern say that reductions to public sector provision and caps on housing benefit have led to a 'sharp increase' in homelessness. CHC after 20% cuts is struggling to deal with the average 150 people a week who seek their help. More than 10,000 people in Brent are affected by the benefit cap and are already in force for new claimants and will affect existing claimants early next year.
GOVERNORS VOTE FOR ACADEMY PLAN HTp8 The Chair of Governors of Kingsbury High says that one of the reasons for applying for academy status was their need for increased funding  because the equalisation of funding between 6th forms and further education colleges means they would lose £1,016 per student in their 400 pupil 6th form by 2013. FUNDING OF FESTIVALS WILL STOP WBTp2 Brent Executive cut the money for religious festivals in the borough on Monday saying it was unfair to give the money to certain religious festivals. Cllr Paul Lorber said the religious celebration had been open to all and were designed to improve relations between communities. In answer to his question about th Council's retention of fireworks night Cllr Ann John said this had been retained for health and safety and not religious reasons.
MANY SERVICES ARE STILL BEING IMPROVED DESPITE CUTS WBTp15 Column by Ann John, Labour leader of Brent Council who says that despite the cuts 'it is not all doom and gloom' because regeneration is continuing and they've resisted government attempts to force up council rents to unaffordable levels.  She says the Council is making Brent a greener borough through schemes to increase recycling, tackle fly-tipping and getting rid of old inefficient buildings.
COUNCIL MUST LISTEN TO VOICE OF THE PEOPLE WBTp16 Editorial which says that campaigners on various issues could 'hardly have failed to have noticed that the town hall is ignoring your views'. They cite the libraries issue, parking permits and day care centres. On the Stonebridge Day Centre they say, 'Brent council will say they had no choice; but "following orders" is no excuse, the council should have fought to keep the centre, they could have found an alternative to closing it. They could have listened to the people who pay their salaries and expenses, whose votes they canvass for at elections - the very people they are supposed to represent.'

Initial judgement on libraries case in second week of August?

"Although reluctant, the Judge said he might be able to say which party had won by the end of the second week of August, and then provide a full reasoned judgement in October."

From an account of Day 3 of the Brent Library case by I Spy in Queen's Park LINK

An excellent account of the second day from the Bookseller  LINK

"Let's all go down the Strand and bring your banner..." - library closures hearing next week

Campaigners' application for a judicial review of Brent Council's decision to close six of the borough's 12 libraries will be heard in the Royal Courts of Justice next week.  The hearing will take place on Tuesday 19th July and Wednesday 20th July. There is a possibility that it will spill over to the morning of Thursday 21st July.

Brent SOS Library campaigners and Brent Fightback supporters will be assembling outside the Court on Tuesday and Wednesday at 9am (the hearing is expected to start at 10.30am) and again at 4.15pm with banners and placards. Please try and get along and bring your own placards.  There should be seating in the court for between 60 and 80 people and the presence of those affected can be positive in terms of curtailing the more outrageous claims that the defendants could make in their absence.

The case is significant because it is the first legal challenge to library closures. There are almost 4000 pages of documents before the Court and over 200 pages of witness statements. In a nutshell, campaigners argue that the Council decision was flawed because it:

• started from the false premise that library closures were an inevitability (therefore closing its mind to reasonable alternatives);
• failed to assess local need at the right time, or adequately;
• failed to comply with equality legislation, and its own impact assessment policies; and
• failed to disclose its criteria, and reasons, for rejecting alternative community-based means of retaining some or all of the libraries earmarked for closure.

The Royal Courts of Justice are in the Strand and the nearest tube is Temple MAP

Brent Library Closure Delays

No Brent libraries will be closed until after the last 'A' Level exam on July 1st according to a report on the Libraries Transformation Project going to the Executive on May 23rd. This will mean that no action need to be taken of the referral made by Scrutiny Committee earlier this month after representations from Brent Youth Parliament.

The report acknowledges that it is difficult to give firm dates on the closures 'due to management of variables including contractual notice for facilities, the profile of staff who are leaving and the potential legal proceedings'.

The report states:

The library users may commence legal proceedings against the Council by way of Judicial Review. This could also have implications for the date of closure of the six libraries

Councillors are reminded that a report on the implementation of the Project is not scheduled until April 2012

LINK to report

First Salvo Fired in Library Legal Campaign

Brent Council has now been sent the Letter Before Action from Bindmans that begins the legal process for a judicial review. The action is backed by S.O.S. Brent Libraries which brings together the campaigns against the closures of six Brent libraries.

The Letter Before Action in summary claims:

1. a fair-minded and informed observer, having full regard to the facts, would conclude that there was a real possibility of predetermination by the decision-makers that these closure proposals should go ahead (indeed that there was no alternative) which, in turn, meant the results of the consultation exercise were not taken into account conscientiously and with open minds on 11 April 2011;
2. insufficient information was gathered to enable the decision- makers to take into account mandatory relevant considerations at the appropriate time, particularly in relation to questions of need for library services and equality;
3. some consultation responses were not made known to members, significant errors of fact were made in the consultation document and officers’ reports and irrational conclusions drawn;
4. the Council misdirected itself on the means by which its duty to provide a library service could be discharged; and
5. those who had made alternative proposals were not dealt with fairly.

Unless Brent Council backs down the legal process is expected to proceed by way of a judicial review of the council's decision.

John Halford of Bindmans is acting for the campaigners of the threatened libraries. He is a human rights and public law department partner who acts for individuals and groups to challenge abuse of power, human rights breaches and discrimination. He has experience of bringing cases against a wide range of public bodies and organisations, and of advising national charities, NGOs, campaigning groups and regulators. In 2007 he won the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Award for social and welfare law. 

David Butcher from Kensal Rise speaking on behalf of the Brent SOS Library Campaign said,

Thousands of people across the whole of Brent are supporting the campaign to save the local community libraries of Barham, Cricklewood, Kensal Rise, Neasden, Preston and Tokyngton. 

While Councillors Ann John and Powney are using the resources of Brent Council to force through the closures local people are determined to fight their closure plans all the way.

Brent SOS Libraries; Save Our Six Librarie have agreed to raise funds for the judicial review of the council’s decision. The Legal Services Commission requires a ‘community contribution’ of £30,000 towards the costs. Each of the library groups has pledged to raise a contribution.

Library campaigners are asking everyone to donate £5 if they can afford it. Campaigners are hopeful that the money will be raised quickly.

Information about how to make donations can be found on the website www.brentsoslibraries.org.uk

Meanwhile Save Kensal Rise Library Campaign who had advertised a lobby of Cllr Powney, who is spearheading the library cuts, claim that he went into hiding when his electorate arrived to see him on  May 7th. LINK

Brent S.O.S, - Donate for the legal challenge

The campaigns to Save Brent Libraries have joined together to mount a legal challenge to Brent's widely criticised closure decision. They are now seeking funds from the public to help mount the campaign. Full details are now on this blog HERE

They deserve your support.

Brent Save Our Six Libraries website HERE

Library Consultation Whitewash

To misquote, there are lies, damn lies and Brent Council PR. The May edition of the Brent Magazine contains an article on Brent libraries. In contrast to its coverage of the 'Transformation' consultation it does state clearly that six libraries will be closed but it is the final paragraphs on consultation that will get library campaigners seething:

The consultation ended on 4 March and since then the council has been carefully analysing the results and has taken on board many of the suggestions and views of both library users and non-users.

As well as inviting comments, the council also made it clear that it would be open to any suggestions from groups interested in taking over the control from the council of any libraries threatened with closure.

The council did not of course take on board the views of 82% of consultees that the libraries should stay open and did not publish its criteria for community take over until after bids were submitted. Cllr Powney eventually made it clear that any takeover require the community campaigns to purchase the buildings from Brent, rather more that is implied by 'taking over the control'.

Brent Library Closures - the final act?

There were gasps from the public gallery at last night's Scrutiny Committee last night when Cllr James Powney strode into the Council Chamber in what appeared to be an early 20th century beige Amazonian rain forest exploration costume. The gasps (of admiration or incredulity?) soon turned into gasps of shock at the man's sheer audacity when he responded to objector's representations on the closure of half of Brent's libraries.

He accused the chair of Brent Youth Parliament (see below) of not having read the hefty document on the Libraries Transformation Project and described their request as 'superfluous'. Cllr Helga Gladbaum drew mutters from the public when she said she liked the way students used tables and chairs in the Town Hall for studying. Kishan Parshotam had pointed out that during the Easter holiday there had been over-flow from the Town Hall library because of the number of students and asked what the impact would be on these numbers if six libraries closed. The BYP's request that the Executive ensure suitable study facilities be available during the 2011 examination period was reworded into a recommendation that they consider what provision could be made during the current examination period and was approved with three votes for, 1 Labour against and three Labour abstentions. There were four Labour councillors on the committee, 2 Lib Dems - including the chair, and one Conservative. Labour voted down the other two recommendations as a block and did the same for all subsequent recommendations.

The criteria for alternative business plans were the subject of a long debate when the Preston Community Volunteer Library proposer spoke of the difficulty of getting financial information from the Council in order to formulate plans. Her request for details had been treated by officers as a Freedom of Information request with a timeline that meant the data was not available before the submission deadline. A legal investigation as promised on whether that was lawful.

The council was also criticised for not making the criteria on which the plans would be judged public before the campaigns worked on them. Instead the plans were submitted before the criteria were published and it was therefore no surprise that they did not meet them. As if this was not enough Cllr Powney said they would all have failed anyway because proposals had to all to be at no cost to the council and that any handover of council buildings would be at an 'exorbitant' cost to the council. In other words the volunteer proposers would have to purchase the buildings. A recommendation that the Preston Community Library proposal be reconsidered after the proposers had time to reformulate it was rejected. A similar request from Kensal Rise Library campaigners was rejected as were requests that the timescales should be clarified in order to ensure there was no gap in service (the six libraries will close imminently but extended hours and other changes will take a long time to implement) and that school staff and students should be consulted further as so few has responded to the original consultation.

This latter caused a further debate. Only 8 of 79 schools had responded to an e-mailed survey. Preston Library campaigners over the last 24 hours had found that at least 10 schools had said they had not been consulted. Cllr Powney insisted that they had all been consulted and that in addition a meeting had been held with school literacy coordinators. He claimed that they may not have responded because they were happy that the Transformation Project would be an improvement but also that  'administration in the schools may not be effective'.  Cllr Lorber retorted that the likelihood of a response would have been reduced  if the e-mail did not make clear that the proposals were about the closure of six libraries. Sarah Tannburn, in the absence of library officers who were on holiday,  confirmed that the title of the e-mail referred to 'Transformation' but 'as I recall' some of the 15 questions referred to closures. Lorber said if the the letter had been explicit about closures, schools would have responded.

A final recommendation from Paul Lorber that the Neasden library closure be reconsidered as the library's profile did not fit with the closure criteria and that Dollis Hill residents were faced with closures at both Neasden and Cricklewood, was rejected.

Cllr Powney concluded by saying that consultation respondents were not representative of either library users in particular or residents in general, consultations were not referendums and that the council could not merely comply with consultation outcomes as they would be in breach of regulations about council efficiency, securing best value, and other legislation. He was sure that the proposals would result long-term in an increase in library usage, study space and IT provision.

Brent Youth Parliament 'Disregarded' on Library Closures

Kishan Parshotam, chair of Brent Youth Parliament made a presentation to the Scrutiny Committee yesterday setting out BYP's position on library closures. The BYP's recommendations are reproduced below:

Brent Youth Parliament’s Recommendations to Overview and Scrutiny
• BYP comprises of 72 elected members who represent the 72,000 young people of our borough’s young people.
• As a body, we understand that cuts do need to be made in the budget. However, cuts to libraries should be reconsidered, as they will have a detrimental effect on Brent’s educational standards and the young people you represent.
• Around 50% of the libraries’ regular users are young people aged 19 and under – the group that has suffered most from central government cuts already
• The sudden withdrawal of these services will hit this vulnerable group at a time when it is most needed.
• Students who responded to BYP’s “Have Your Say” forms were deeply concerned about library closures and wanted us to make it a priority to keep them open.
• Brent Town Hall, one of the libraries set to stay open, has seen overflow of study spaces for many years now. It is not acceptable to see young people studying on the stairs of the Town Hall.
• My local library, Barham Park, has been packed throughout the Easter break with students and young people of all ages. The impact on young people is going to be very substantial
• The Consultation at Brent Youth Parliament on 22nd February 2011 was ignored by the Head of Culture and Environment, who disregarded the views of young people on the day. In this meeting, the issue of study space for students was mentioned on numerous occasions – yet no proposal has been given as to how the impact on young people will be subsided.

Therefore, on behalf of Brent’s 72,000 young people, I would like the Scrutiny Committee to make the following recommendations to the Executive:
1. The Executive to ensure that the existing Libraries or suitable alternative local premises continue to be available for young people throughout the 2011 exam period
2. The Executive to look again at the implications and consequences of closing six libraries on young people living in the areas nearby
3. The Executive to consider provision of facilities of access to computers and revision space during exam periods in subsequent years in those areas where libraries are being closed. In addition, the Executive should ensure that as far as possible young people are made aware of these facilities.

Since the establishment of the Youth Parliament in 2007, the borough’s youth have
been encouraged to shape their communities. Please do not take away such a large
chunk of these same communities without considering the impacts.

Down Wembley Way Everything is Free and Easy - even if it costs £100m

The latest edition of Wembleyway (and the last - the paper edition is a victim of council cuts) has a lead story lauding, Soviet Weekly style, the new Civic Centre. The paper claims, "The building is affordable and has the backing of all Brent's political parties...."   Regular readers will know that Brent Green Party opposed the plans from the beginning but Wembleyway is correct in that Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives all approved the plans under the last administration.  However Labour raised concerns about the affordability of the project during the General Election campaign, only to revert to support once elected, while Cllr Reg Colwill for the Conservatives in the ITN interview BELOW says he can't see what is wrong with Brent Town Hall and that improvements could have been made to it at a fraction of the cost of the new Civic Centre.  Paul Lorber for the Lib Dems has already called for the Civic Centre mega library to be scaled back.

Meanwhile the council continues to insist that the new Civic Centre is cost-neutral with '...no burden on Brent's council tax payers. The cost will be met with efficiency savings and savings achieved by moving out of more than twelve existing buildings."   The project costs £100,000,000 which Brent Council will borrow and they claim the new building will save them £4,000,000 a year. So we will get our money back in 25 years time. A bargain!

The Wall Street Journal sums up Brent's library closures and the Civic Centre

When they write the history books, the councilmen and bureaucrats who chose to close a library rather than postpone some self-aggrandizing boondoggle won't make the cut, even if, for now, they are making the headlines.

See what the kids of College Green Nursery think LINK

Labour Councillor: Closing libraries is 'the best thing we've done'.

I am just back from holiday and catching up on local news. It was no surprise to hear that the Brent Executive voted through the library closures as that decision was anticipated by the budget approved by the Council earlier, by the officers' report to the Council and by Cllr Powney's utterances throughout. 'Consultation', 9,000 petition signatures, 'Big Society' schemes and even two hours of eloquent  presentations to the Executive. mean nothing if the Labour leadership and its supine councillors have already made up their minds.

The attitude of some Labour councillors is summed up by this comment posted on the Save Preston Library Facebook page. Cllr Colum Mahoney was alleged to have said at the end of the meeting when demonstrators said how gutted they were at losing their library:

He said with a wide grin on his face, "It's the best thing we've done." As we he was walking out of the Town Hall doors, he shouted back at us, "Go and read some books."

The issue of the Civic Centre has come to the fore as a result of the press and TV coverage and the Conservatives on the Council, despite being part of the previous Council Coalition that initiated the project, are now more vocal in their opposition. When all the political parties on the council voted unanimously for the Civic Centre, the Greens were the only voice of opposition.  Cllr Reg Colwill can bee seen on the London ITN News criticising the project:



Interestingly even the Wall Street Journal LINK suggests that Brent Council could move into cheap office space:

......instead of constructing what it aims to be "the greenest building in the U.K." Forgoing the new center's wedding garden, winter garden, terrace, and charging points for electric cars might also leave a little more cash for libraries.

My colleague Shahrar Ali has posted a report on the Executive Meeting HERE

The question for me remains, 'What price local democracy?' The Willesden and Brent Times last week in a editorial echoed my warnings about the impact of poor consultation procedures, decisions made in advance of consultations and the rubbishing of active citizenship on the electorate's long-term relationship with the Council. The Council may express concern that only 20% of residents use the public libraries - those same 20% are probably a much bigger proportion of those people who actually vote at local elections (only just over half of those on the electoral roll last May).

LOBBY EXECUTIVE MEETING FROM 6.00 PM ON MONDAY TO SAVE OUR LIBRARIES

Brent Fightback along with library campaigners will be lobbying the Executive Meeting on Monday outside the Town Hall from 6pm. The Executive is the decision making body on library closures. The Extraordinary Council Meeting later in the week is not empowered to change Executive decisions. 

Public attendance arrangements for Monday's Executive meeting are the same as for the recent budget setting Council meeting. Admittance will be by ticket on a first come - first served basis.  Tickets will be distributed at the Town Hall door from around 6pm.  There will be 48 tickets only for the public gallery.

There is a notice on the door of the Town Hall Library saying that the library, which usually closes at 8pm on a Monday, will be closed at 5pm 'Due to the Executive Meeting'. This presumably is to avoid any repeat of the Council Meeting when protesters,  frustrated at the limitation on attendance,  circumvented security and the police by entering the Town Hall through the adjoining library.  Certainly 48 is a very small number of the public compared with the more than 9,000 who have signed petitions to keep the libraries open..

Both The Willesden and Brent Times and Wembley and Willesden Observer have editorials critical of Brent Council this week. The WBT says Labour councillors have 'steam-rollered' their original plans through and ignored the results of consultation. They state along similar lines that I have argued here:

As one activist said, the impression is that the council is just going through the motions rather than taking people's views into account. If the council are not careful residents will just stop engaging with them or, in their eyes, worse, take their votes elsewhere.

 The WWO says residents have never been so vocal as on the libraries issue and say it has left campaigners wondering what the point of consulting was if their views were always intended to be ignored:

It seems the protesters were unfortunately always doomed to fail in this sham of a process which has now been deemed a farce by campaign groups. Brent Council had already made up its mind when it set the budget back in February - before the consultation finished.

They call on the Executive to look beyond the closure report and:

consider the overwhelming community spirit which has united the borough in the crusade to save their beloved reading rooms...

 It is rare for our local newspapers to criticise the council in such harsh terms and great to see them making a firm stand alongside local people in the best tradition of a strong local press holding the council to account.  A huge turn-out on Monday is essential to reinforce the message: The fight for our libraries and our other services is not yet lost. The ConDem government is doing a u-turn on the NHS, Brent Council should think again.

Preston Community Library proposal will now be considered by Executive

From the Guardian website, but in Brent Labour is doing the Tories' work for them

Sue McKenzie, head of Libraries, Arts and Heritage has now told the Save Preston Library Campaign that their proposal for a community library will now be appraised on the same basis as other proposals and the outcome will be submitted to the Executive On April 11th.

The proposals had been submitted to the Council by e-mail in time for the deadline but were mysteriously not received and not mentioned in the Executive Report published on Friday.  See earlier POST for details.

Preston Library Campaign appeals for help and Extraordinary Council Meeting fixed for April 13th

Things continued to move on the libraries closure issue over the weekend after publication of the report to the Executive on Friday. Save Preston Library Campaign's proposals for a volunteer-run library do not appear in the report or its appendices, although it was apparently sent to the Council.

The campaign is still working on a business plan:

We are preparing a business plan for Preston Library. It is based on Chalfont St Giles Library (C L) (run by volunteers for 4 years) who are helping us. It must be lodged with the councillors and officers well before the 11th April meeting when the cabinet want to confirm the closures of all six libraries.

It is essential that we obtain enough volunteers to run the library for the days we decide it will be open. We have over 40 volunteers already with varying skills. Some to run the library others with skills such as an electrician, health and safety expert, two retired librarians. We need volunteers who can offer three hours a week.

We also need pledges of money and offers of interest free loans and to start fund raising.

The campaign asks anyone who can help in any way to write to them at: bunce.linsell@virgin .net

Meanwhile the Mayor of Brent has agreed to the request by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats for an Extraordinary Meeting to discuss the library closures. It will be held on Wednesday April 13th at 7pm in the Council Chamber at Brent Town Hall. This is of course after the Executive meeting on Monday April 11th which has the closure report on its agenda.

An excellent account of Tim Coates' talk on Brent Library finances can be found on the I Spy in Queens Park blog HERE

Despite massive opposition Brent library closures recommended to Executive

The report on the Libraries Strategy which will go to the Executive on April 11th has now been published LINK to Report and Appendices.  It recommends the closure of six libraries despite massive opposition and rejects all the alternative proposals that have been put forward.

82% of respondents said that the rationalisation proposals which include the closures was unreasonable against 11% who thought it was reasonable. 24% of respondents agreed and 61% of respondents disagreed with the broad proposal that Brent Libraries will become community hubs with revised service delivery and funding principles.

The report attempts to undermine these figures by suggesting that respondents are unrepresentative:

8.5 It is therefore all the more important to recall that consultation does not constitute a referendum. There are serious challenges within the consultation feedback as to how representative it is of library users, of non-users, or the borough’s population as a whole. Members should be aware of these shortcomings as they consider the weight they give to the outcomes of the three-month consultation alongside the other drivers for change, including the needs assessment, the available resources and the equalities impact assessment.
8.6 In particular:
• Only 23% of the Borough’s population used a Brent library in the last year (borrowed at least one item during the year and/or accessed ICT services) which is in itself an important challenge for the new library offer. By contrast 87% of respondents to the questionnaire use a library regularly (at least once a month). It proved extremely difficult to engage with non-users and analyse their reasons for not using the libraries, which highlighted the importance of improved marketing of the services available
• respondents focused almost exclusively on the proposals to close six libraries.
Thus Kensal Rise (34%) and Preston (24%) users account for 58% of all questionnaire responses, and 83% of all responses named one of the six. However, all six libraries taken together represent less than 25% of total library visits in 2009/10 (without adjusting usage to account for the temporary closure of Harlesden library)
• some elements of the questionnaire responses are contradictory. For instance, 61% of respondents disagreed with the broad proposal that libraries become community hubs with revised service delivery and funding principles, but 79% of respondents suggest that libraries could also be used as community meeting places and 44% that other public services could share library buildings.
• The population of respondents is significantly different from that of the population of active borrowers, and from that of the Borough as a whole, particularly in relation to ethnicity. 60% of respondents identified as white (45% white British), compared to 32% of active borrowers.
• where it was possible to have a more detailed conversation, for example at the Open Day, or analysing the Red Quadrant research undertaken in October 2010, there are differing opinions about the ambitions for the service, for example concerning the balance between PC availability, quiet space, stock and children’s services.

My claim that young people will be disproportionately  hit by the closures is supported by the Report's figures on young borrowers:

Library Total number of Active Borrowers Number under 19’s %
Barham Park 1800 912 – 51%
Cricklewood 1341 698 – 42%
Kensal Rise 1707 714- 54%
Neasden 2336 1294 – 54%
Preston 3194 1494- 45%
Tokyngton 1496 877- 58%
Total 11874 5989

 The Report considers in detail (Appendix 6) alternative proposal.s It rejects outright proposals to reduce opening hours of all libraries to keep all 12 open, cutting of 'support' costs by 90% and making savings elsewhere.

Specific proposals are given a rating of 1 - 4 as follows: (Click to enlarge)

The report does not recommend consideration of any of these proposals and goes on to reject specific schemes that have been put forward: (Click image to enlarge)

A number of Petitions will be presented to the Executive at their meeting on April 11th which together contain approximately 9,600 signatures although there is likely to be some duplication. Numbers are as follows:

Petition, Lead Petitioner, Approx number of Signatures

Cancel Plans to Close 6 Libraries, Wembley Observer, 124

Keep Cricklewood Library Open, Friends of Cricklewood Library, 1317

Against Closure of Neasden Library, Local Residents, 800

Save Preston Library, Conservative Councillors Colwill and HB Patel, 819

Save Preston Library Campaign, Samatha Warrington, 5897

Stop Labour's Library Closures, LIB Dem Councillor Lorber, 672

These documents are very long and  this is only a quick summary. I would welcome comments about other aspects of the reports from readers and campaigners.

Consultation Under Fire

Way back in Winter 2008 I wrote in Brent Green News about concerns about consultation in Brent. As complaints multiply about recent consultations it is worth returning to the topic.

Brent Council's website states:

Consultations give you the opportunity to get involved with decision-making in Brent.

We consult with the public on proposals and plans and take responses into account when deciding our policies for the borough.

Many residents now think that consultations do not enable them to get involved in decision making - decisions have often been made before the consultation ends. Some major decisions are not consulted about at all. Residents often also feel that their responses are not taken into account.

Some residents thought that if  there was enough opposition to a Council proposal then it might be abandoned. Cllr Ruth Moher.  in the case of the adult day centres when users were overwhelmingly opposed to closure, clearly stated that this was not the case.

The question then arises about what the point of consultation is. A cynic may respond that it is to enable a box to be ticked in documentation - and no more than that. Let's look at some variations in consultation.

1. NO CONSULTATION - The Council does not consult at all but just goes ahead, often on the most important issues.  This includes not consulting on the principle of academy schools in the case of the Wembley Ark Academy. Consultation was about the plans and the name, not whether we should have academy schools. Similarly the Council did not ask whether Brent residents wanted a grandiose Civic Centre, but we could comment on the design. Currently the Council is going ahead with an all through school at Preston Manor without consultation on whether this type of school is wanted, again consultation has been limited to planning issues.
2. DECISIONS MADE BEFORE CONSULTATION ENDS - This appears to be the case with the closure of Brent libraries. The Council budget setting meeting, and Cllr Ann John herself, assumed the closures would go ahead despite consultation still having some days to run and no report available on the outcomes.
3. CONSULTATION NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT BECAUSE OF THE NEED FOR SPEEDY DECISIONS - This is a new development and linked to financial deadlines such as the front-loading of cuts this year and the need to spend school places safety valve money before August 2011. In cases such as the Charteris Sports Centre and the libraries insufficient time is given to the search for alternatives solutions and the closures go ahead anyway. With school places there is not sufficient time to change the location of Preston Manor Primary School to reduce its impact on traffic congestion 'because the plans are already in place' and no time to discuss incorporating the Mission Dining Club into the new building at Newfield Primary School.The Council applied for planning permission for the Preston Manor Primary School before the Executive had considered submissions on the statutory consultation and approved it. 
4. HALF-COCK CONSULTATION/PARTICIPATION - The residents raising issues with the planning committee on Preston Manor had two site visits with the planning committee on which keys to the site were not available. On the last occasion some councillors wandered away while residents were trying to talk to them and one clambered back onto the bus.  A further problem has been the illegibility of poorly scanned documentation on the Council website. The library campaigns have taken up the inaccuracy of library visit statistics that formed a key part of the Council's case for closures and the figures on children without school places in the vicinity of Preston Manor have been challenged.
5. RESPONDENTS QUESTIONS/COMMENTS NOT ANSWERED - Again in the Preston Manor case some questions remained completely unanswered in the Council's response undermining the legitimacy of the decision.
6. PROPOSALS/QUESTIONNAIRES DISGUISING THE REAL ISSUES - The most obvious one here is the Library 'Transformation' Programme which some library users through was about redecoration and not closures! The Brent Magazine questionnaire on the Waste Strategy was less than clear that it involved a switch to fortnightly residual waste collection.
7. INFORMATION GIVING MASQUERADING AS CONSULTATION - The recent allotment 'consultation' on the rise in  rents was held after the Council approved the rise and when it had been announced before Christmas. Allotment holders were really just told why rents had risen in the context of the Council's financial difficulties and not asked whether they should have been put up or whether there were any alternative proposals.
8. RESIDENTS NOT INFORMED OF CONSULTATION - A regular issue, particularly with planning applications. It arose over Preston Manor when many residents living nearby the school were not told about expansion proposals. After initially saying that what they had done was adequate the Council did send out additional letters. Under the last administration similar complaints were made about the Wembley Masterplan.

All this really riles residents and contributes to a distrust of politicians. More importantly, it discourages active citizenship and participation at a time when local government needs all the friends it can get.