Butt welcomes input from Preston on Community Library Strategy

Titus Bear from Barham Community Library visits Preston Library

Cllr Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council, has copied me into his response to Philip Bromberg of Preston Community Library who requested consultation over the development of a Community Library Strategy LINK:

Philip

Many thanks for attending the cabinet meeting and for your contribution along side the other contributions.

I sincerely do want a positive outcome for all and hence the suggestion from myself for a   Community library strategy that doesn't just cover the PCL but any other community library including the good work being done with Kensal and Cricklewood.

There will need to be a concerted effort from all areas especially from the library service and from property as well.

It would be good to have some input from yourself as we move this forward in formulating this policy. Let me and Michael start the discussion with our officers and WWE will get together soon.

Libraries are under the remit of Cllr Pavey with Phil Porter as the Strategic Director and property is under my remit with Althea Loderick as the Strategic Director for Resources, we will need to work together closely to make sure that we get the best outcomes in making sure that organisations that work with us and deliver services such as PCL are recognised.

Philip please don't hesitate to pick the phone up or contact me if you want to discuss things.

Kind Regards
Muhammed

Cllr Muhammed Butt
Leader of Brent Council

Meanwhile the papers for tomorrow's  Full Meeting of the Council contains this question from Cllr Reg Colwill (Leader of the Kenton Conservative Group) and Cllr Michael Pavey's, Lead Member for Stronger Communities and Libraries, reply:

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7. Question to the Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities from Councillor Reg Colwill, Kenton

The residents of the Preston Ward have done a fantastic job in keeping the library active and working to make sure that all the residents have access to books in a very professional manner.

Will the Council now honour what they told the residents that is that they would give them the library to continue their good work?

If yes, the Committee running the library would like to know when.

Preston Community Library have done an absolutely superb job in keeping a library running in extremely difficult circumstances. They have delivered a truly inclusive range of exceptional activities and have brought the whole community together. 

I would make the small point that although many of the Library volunteers are indeed Preston residents, many others live in Barnhill and surrounding wards - they all deserve immense credit.

We plan to redevelop the Preston Library building to provide new housing, however these plans will also incorporate high quality new community space. Cabinet felt that the published report paving the way for this redevelopment did not sufficiently recognise the excellent work of the Preston Community Library, nor did it do enough to pledge ongoing support for that library. 

Consequently Cabinet committed to take three months to work with Preston Community Library, as well as the community libraries in Cricklewood, Kensal Rise and Barham Park, to develop a new Community Library Strategy over and above which the Council has a duty to provide. In addition to broader issues, this strategy will directly address access to the new Preston Library building.

Cabinet has also stated a very clear preference that both the tender process and the rental level for the new community space at the redeveloped building should be clearly weighted towards social value, rather than financial value. 

All four Brent community libraries are extremely important partners of the Brent Library Service. We are grateful for their excellent work and look forward to working with them to develop an exciting new strategy to assist in securing the long term future of each library.

Preston Library wins 3 month licence extension and Council community library strategy

 Statement by Cllr Butt  (Leader) & submissions by Cllrs Harrison, Hossain & Warren*



Submissions by Michael Rushe & Philip Bromberg, statements by Cllr Pavey & Cllr Southwood*
 


Cabinet discussion and decision

Brent Cabinet agreed to a 3 month extension of Preston Community Library's licence tonight to enable the Council to formulate a Community Library Strategy which would cover all Brent community libraries. The situation will be reviewed in January 2017.

The Cabinet was addressed by Michael Rushe of SKPPRA and Philip Bromberg of Preston Community Library. They presented a closely argued evidence based case for the continuation of the library and for rejection of the officers' report.

Cllrs Harrison and Hossain, Preston ward councillors, spoke on behalf of the library with Harrison calling for the Council to keep its promises to the Preston volunteers. Hossain spoke of the library's key role in facilitating a place for the area's diverse community to meet and socialise.

Cllr Pavey, lead member for Stronger Communities and Libraries rejected the report's terminology of a 'pop up library' to describe Preston Community Hub.  The bookcase at Willesden Green station was a 'pop up' - Preston with its shelves of books, classes and cinema was much more than that. He argued for the primacy of social value in any procurement process rather than financial value. The financial equivalent of the volunteers' efforts should be included in a calculation of social value. Pavey suggested that in any design for the new building the library space shoudl come first and the flats second.

Cllr Muhammed Butt said that the group, if it got part of the redeveloped building, would  not be expected to pay the £51,000 commercial rent mentioned in the officers' report but he did not specify a peppercorn rent either.

He emphasised that he did not want to be in a conflict situation with the volunteer libraries but wanted to work with them. The libraries complemented the six Brent Council libraries and did not replace them.

During the discussion it was clarified that the report granted the Council permission to start a dialogue with the owner of the garage neighbouring the site about possible purchase to develop the garage's corner plot alongside the library. No approach had been made as yet.

There was a cautionary note from Gail Tolley, Strategic Director for Chldren and Families. She said that although the possible provision of a Primary Pupil Referral Unit on the library site was being dealt with separately and there were enough spaces for Reception pupils in the area, the Council were still getting 'in year' demand from families moving into the area from other parts of London, the UK or elsewhere. There was particular pressure on Years 3 and 4. There was no way of predicting the numbers or age groups of children who would arrive between now and next July.  More would be known by the end of the 3 month period,  in terms of the possible use of the site for bulge classes for those children,  but beyond that was still unpredictable.

* Video date should be September 13th NOT August 13th. The hottest September day for a century got me confused!

Broken promises threaten future of Preston Community Library

From Philip Bromberg of Preston Community Library

On September 13, Brent Council's Cabinet will consider plans to re-develop the Preston Library site. The intention is to build flats and a new 'community space'. These plans are a serious threat to the existence of  Preston Community Library, and we need to act now.

As most of you will know, in May 2014 Brent Labour Party made an election promise to "offer the building at a peppercorn rent to any local group who can provide a sustainable community library. We will not open to competitive tender in order to give preference to local groups". But, under the current plans, the new community space will be offered for open market tender, with an anticipated rental income of £51,000.

Please write now - today or tomorrow - to Mo Butt, the Leader of the Council, cllr.muhammed.butt@brent.gov.uk . Please tell him that we wish to continue to operate in the existing building, and ask him to guarantee that any new community space will contain a library at least as large as the current library, and that it will be offered at a peppercorn rent as he himself promised two years ago. If you prefer to phone him, his mobile number is 07867 169 879.

Please also contact your local ward councillors. For Preston ward, these are Matt Bradley,    cllr.matthew.bradley@brent.gov.uk  Jean Hossain,    cllr.jean.hossain@brent.gov.uk and Pat Harrison, cllr.patricia.harrison@brent.gov.uk .

With your support over the last five years (and, incidentally, with the support of several sympathetic councillors), we created Preston Community Library, and that's something we should all be immensely proud of. At the moment, despite considerable obstacles caused by our licence, we continue to run a fully functioning public library at virtually no cost to the Council. Our English classes, our IT classes, our art class, our storytime sessions for children, our wonderful community cinema - all of these and more are now under threat.

I urge every single one of you to contact our councillors today to ask them to protect our library. Please copy me in to any correspondence. If any of you want to read the report, it is HERE

With thanks,

Philip,
Chair, Preston Community Library,

Anger as thriving Preston Community Library faces curtailment

Preston Library campaigners went to Cabinet last night to raise concerns over the School Expansion report which will mean the Preston Library Community Hub restricting its activities to weekends from September.  The Council has decided that the former library building is needed for primary classes from Wembley High School as building work there is behind schedule.

Philip Bromberg from the campaign told the Cabinet that he was not convinced that there was no alternative buildings available (the report lists the former Anansi Nursery as available from July 2016 until July 2018 but states 'this building is no longer required').

He told the Cabinet about all the activities that are available at the Hub, including a cinema, with visitor numbers doubling. He said that the Community library was doing things that the Council had pulled out of and 'doing them very well'.  He told the Cabinet that if the Council could not succeed in cooperating with a large and successful group such as the Community Library and Hub, he could not see its strategy succeeding elsewhere.

After an optimistic letter from Cllr Mashari about joint design of the new facility in April little had happened with the promised collaborative approach and now the use by Wembley High was being discussed just 3-4 days before their licence ended, with no direct word to the Library from the Council.

A local film maker told the council about the sucecss of the cinema which had been funded with a £4000 grant from the council and had become a vital part of the local community with all showings at capacity. The grant would be a waste of money if the Library did not  continue.  He invited councillors and the governors of Wembley High School to visit the Community Hub. Campaigners were keen to establish as positive a relationship with Wembley High as they'd had with Preston Park Primary but this had not happened yet.

Michael Pavey agreed to amend the term 'pop up' used in the report about the library when a speaker said that it was a fully fledged community library with 663 visits in June.

Cllr Margaret McLennan, responding to the delegation, said the Council had always made it clear that the priority needs of the borough were school places and housing. These came ahead of the policy to bring buildings back to life. She substituted a new paragraph for one in the report which would now say that there was no prospect of disposal of the Preston library building until 2017-18 and options would be looked at for commercial or community disposal in August 2017 at the earliest.

To protests from campaigners Cllr Mashari said that she did not appreciate Philip Bromberg's claim that the council had reneged on a deal and had not responded to campaigners. She said that they had made it 'extremely clear' before the election that school places were a priority and the building had never been promised to one particular group. She concluded that the library supported 'fantastic community activities - but don't misquote us'.

Philip Bromberg asked for a right of reply to what he saw as a personal attack but Cllr Pavey refused.

Cllr Ruth Moher, lead member for Children and Families, said that places were needed so that schools had a 5% vacancy rate as required by the government. At present the soare capacity in Brent schools was only 2.3%. She was not expecting things to get any better in the near future but would eventually like to see buildings used as the community desires.

This is a relatively new requirement (I am not sure of its statutory basis) which is claimed to enhance parents' choice but also has the knock-on effect of increased pupil mobility, particularly in less popular schools, making it harder for them to improve.