Willesden Green Cultural Centre space to be let for 'income generation' rather than One Stop service for residents

When residents opposed the redevelopment of Willesden Green Library and the consequent loss of the Willesden Bookshop, cinema, cafe, museum, art gallery and meeting rooms they were assured that the community would gain not only a Cultural Centre but a Brent Council customer service that would mirror that on offer at the new Civic Centre in Wembley. LINK

The Future Customer Service Project aims to improve efficiency and clarity of the services offered to citizens. The strategy is dependent on developing a new customer contact centre at WGLC providing a service for the south of the borough, an area where many of the Council‟s high need customers reside.

Now a report from Andy Donald to be considered by the Cabinet tomorrow will recommend as part of a new  'Customer Access Strategy' that this be ditched.  The new strategy will rely mainly on Internet access where library staff might help residents get on to the system and a replacement for the telephone system that was installed at the Civic Centre just two years ago.

The report LINK states:

There are other implications for this approach in respect of the new Library at Willesden, including the opportunity to make use of the surplus space in the new building for alternative uses that are of public benefit and in keeping with the ethos of the building. It is proposed that the Council enter into a local dialogue about options for alternative uses in the space. Any use of the space will need to be income generating and as a minimum will need to cover the proportionate running costs such as Business Rates, heating, lighting, cleaning and maintenance.

This news comes on top of the controversy over the  development's luxury apartments, which have already been onward sold twice by property companies before completion, and which have been marketed abroad as investment opportunities with the 'benefit' of  no affordable or key worker housing on site.

Latest prices included £450,000 for a one bedroom flat.

The new strategy will also include changes at the Civic Centre:

The Civic Centre Service Centre includes dedicated self service space on the ground floor which has proved to be very popular with visitors. Members of staff are available within this area to assist visitors to use the self service facilities and also to encourage use of on line services where these are available. The current configuration of the Service Centre will need to be adapted to meet the increasing demand for self service with a concurrent reduction to the numbers of visitors requiring a more traditional face to face interview. Proposals are therefore being drawn up to change the layout of the service centre at the Civic Centre to reflect the need for greater self service provision in the future and to relocate the reception from the mezzanine floor to the ground floor to ensure that visitors’ needs can be quickly assessed when they approach the ground floor area.

It sounds like one of those supermarkets where you find all the tills are self-service.

The report states (original English in the report retained):

Face to face interview will continue to be available for residents who need a more help and assistance in resolving their enquiry.

But it appears that these are likely to be only available on a weekly basis and by appointment:

.        An equality impact assessment for the new community access strategy is attached as Appendix C. The overall impact assessment indicates that the extension of on line access to services could benefit many protected groups providing easy and convenient access on a 24/7 basis. As all channels of contact will remain available, the strategy offers all residents, including those in protected groups enhanced and improved access arrangements. The reconfiguration of the Services centre at Willesden will reduce the availability of face to face interviews with officers, however these will still be available at the Civic Centre and at Willesden by way of a weekly surgery. Residents using self service computers located in the library at Willesden will also be able to speak to an officer using free phones to assist them with any enquiries or to support them through the self service process. During the early stages of the opening of the new Willesden library, staff will be available to provide details about the options available for face to face enquiries from both the Civic Centre and Willesden.

Willesden Green regeneration consultation dates published

Further details of the August 8th consultation on Willesden Green Library Centre redevelopment plans have now been published as well as new consultation dates in September:

Open day on Wednesday 8 August 
 
An open day will be held at Willesden Green Library Centre in The Library Lab to give you an update on the project. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to share your ideas on the future of the WGCC.

There will be a display at The Library Lab throughout August if you are not able to attend the open day.
 
Wednesday 8 August
11am to 8pm at The Library Lab in the WGLC with presentations at 12noon, 2pm, 4pm and 7pm

Further workshops with the following focus groups are planned for September:
 
Tuesday, September 4 - Seniors
Thursday, September 6 - Small and medium enterprises
Tuesday, September 11- Community groups
Thursday, September 13 - Ethnic minority groups
Tuesday, September 18 - Teens
Thursday, September 20 - Families with young children

Further information

If you need more information or have any questions about the planning application please contact Galliford Try’s dedicated freephone information line on 0800 298 7040 or email 
feedback@consultation-online.co.uk. 
Web: www.willesdengreen.co.uk  Twitter: @Will_GreenCC

No space for community to meet at Willesden Cultural Centre hub

No space for meetings like this

 For decades community activists have been able to hire rooms at Willesden Green Library Centre for public meetings. They have been used by campaigns to hold hustings at election times, rallied local people opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, examined issues such as Climate Change and Palestine and discussed the cuts the Coalition and Council have been making.  Our local MPs Sarah Teather and Barry Gardiner have both spoken at public meetings at the Library Centre.

Sarah Teather MP at a Willesden Green library Centre public meeting

The meeting rooms have been part of the lifeblood of local democracy. However the plans for the new Cultural Centre appear to exclude any such provision. The 'community hub' has no community meeting rooms.Not so much a plot as the Council seeming unaware that their actions continue to undermine respect for local democracy: skewed consultations, poor information and now no place to meet to give local people a voice.

It looks as if we shall have to make the 'Rising Sun' public house our community hub!



FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 
Extract:

What will the new cultural centre include?
The new cultural centre, designed by the award winning architects AMHH Architects will incorporate:
General Library, Children’s Library, Customer Contact Centre, Museum,Special Exhibition Gallery, Education Room, Community Gallery Archive, Climate Controlled Archive Store, Foyer/Reception, Café,  Three Creative Cluster Spaces which will be fitted out to facilitate an array of artist and cultural programming,
Data Centre, Confidential Conference Room Public, Toilets, Office Space

Executive approve Willesden Green Regeneration Report but plenty to fight for

Brent Executive unanimously passed the Willesden Library Regeneration Report this evening. Representations had been made on the lack of consultation, particularly over the Brent Archive; a suggestion that the Cricklewood and Kensal Rise libraries should be reopened during the rebuilding; a plea for more study spaces to be opened up during rebuilding; and my request that the Willesden Bookshop be allocated space in the new Cultural Centre that will replace the Willesden Green Library Centre.

The first two representations were not responded to by Cllr Crane who leads on regeneration. Cllr Powney said that council officers were actively looking for more interim study space for students in the area. Cllr Ann John, sidestepping the demand for allocation of retail space in the new development, tried to prompt Cllr Crane into making a response, 'I am right in saying aren't I that the bookshop is being helped to find new premises?' She was assured there were a large number of empty properties in the High Road and the officers would be helping the bookshop. She pressed further, 'The bookshop isn't under any long-term threat then is it?' Apparently satisfied by the grunted response she said, 'We do want the bookshop to continue.'

The issue is of course that we want the bookshop allocated space in the Cultural Centre if it goes ahead and that the high rents in the High Road and not very suitable premises, may mean the Willesden Bookshop will have to close if this is not done.

I print below the speech I prepared for this evening which sets out the case for the Bookshop. The sections in italics were not delivered in order that I meet the 3 minute speaking limit. I retain them because they strengthen the argument with other voices.

I am speaking to you as a Brent resident and as someone who, working in Brent schools, has been a literacy coordinator, children’s librarian, class teacher, reading recovery teacher and a headteacher and is now a school governor who volunteers to help children gain pleasure from their reading.

In all these roles I have found the Willesden Bookshop’s wide range of books tailored to Brent’s diverse population, and their amazingly knowledgeable staff,  hugely useful.

I am not the only one.  There has been consternation in Brent’s educational community at the potential loss of the bookshop. Last year they dealt with 1,000 orders (invoices not individual books) from Brent schools that get a 10% discount and free delivery.

A review in PaperTigers (Children’s International  Book Review) said:

 I have been a frequent visitor to the Willesden Bookshop over the years. It's a veritable honey-pot for anyone looking for "Children's Books from Around the World": they stock many books it is difficult to find elsewhere in the UK.

Local author of children's books, Odette Elliot says: 

Willesden Bookshop 'celebrates the rich cultures and languages of its community'

The Bookshop has been invited to provide bookstalls for three Spring events at the Centre for Staff Development which unfortunately coincide with when they have to pack up and quit their premises. So that will be another loss to education. The Runnymede Trust and National Literacy Campaign recommend the Willesden Bookshop and the Guardian said:

 A wonderful bookshop, great selection including large stock of children's books, and really friendly and helpful staff.

The Report before you on the Willesden Green Library Centre redevelopment states categorically that space will not be provided in the new Willesden Cultural Centre but gives absolutely no reason for this. At the same time space is allocated to a café when there are lots available on the High Road.

A well-established local bookshop would add to the ‘offer’ at the Cultural Centre, in the same way as bookshops add to the attractiveness of the much larger offer at the South Bank.

As well as contributing to the education of our children, the bookshop with its wide stock, reflecting the many cultures of Brent, helps with community cohesion and its support and promotion of local authors raises local aspirations.

The mother of a now internationally famous local author sent me this message:

If they close the bookshop and the library, they will effectively rip the heart out of Willesden.  Both serve people right across our communities. We need a hell of lot of signatures.  What about standing in the street, outside supermarket etc and getting people's signature I am happy to stand there for entire Saturdays or Sundays if that is what it takes.

Yvonne Bailey Smith (Zadie Smith’s mother)

 Nicolette McKenzie wrote to me:

I am most concerned about the proposed redevelopment of the Willesden library.  When six libraries were closed last year it was not made clear at all that the main library would be closed for two years.  This is unacceptable.

Also, the lack of provision for the bookshop, a real local asset, is scandalous.

The lack of publicity about this, and the 'unfortunate' lack of access to the e-petition  all over this past weekend, I consider appalling.

Please do what you can to have this disaster pulled back from the brink of a planning abyss.

Always on the lookout for ‘below the line’ reasons for Council policies I have checked with the Bookshop and they tell me that they have always paid the rent required by the Council and paid it on time – so that’s not the issue.  It can’t be that you can’t cope with businesses on the site as you are planning a café  here and the new Civic Centre has retail space -and anyway, shouldn’t  the Council be championing successful small local businesses that add value to the community?

I call on the Brent Executive, at this early stage in the development of the Cultural Centre, to ensure that Willesden’s Wonderful Bookshop has a place there,