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

Carline Lucas Backs EMA Campaign

Parliament will be voting on the Education Maintenance Allowance on Wednesday. This is an allowance that is absolutely essential to give secondary pupils from low income homes a chance to continue their education.

More on the Save EMA WEBSITE

STRENGTHEN THE FIGHTBACK - come to Thursday's meeting

Join the Great Debate on  Thursday January 13th  7.00 pm Willesden Green Library Centre 95, High Rd Willesden NW10 2SF. John McDonnell MP will be debating with a leading Lib Dem ARE THE CUTS REALLY NECESSARY?  

There will be plenty of opportunity for contributions from the floor. This debate has been organised by the Brent Fightback Campaign on a date that was suggested by Sarah Teather the Lib Dem MP for Brent Central who is a minister in the Con Dem government.  However she has withdrawn from the debate as she has ministerial business elsewhere in the country. 

As she withdrew from a previous meeting also on a date that she had suggested, the debate will go ahead in her absence with another Lib Dem speaker.

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!

Brent Council's New £100m Civic Centre versus Cuts to Vital Services

With Skanksa breaking the ground at the new Civic Centre opposite the Wembley Arena time is running out if the project is to be stopped. This video contrasts Brent Council's boasting about the project with the cuts they are making.

ASDA trolleys stage mass breakout!

Summers Close, Wembley

King's Drive, Wembley

King's Drive, Wembley

ASDA store, Wembley

Well Spring Crescent, Wembley

Well Spring Crescent, Wembley

I reported a dozen or so trolleys that had been abandoned around local streets to the Wembley ASDA Customer Services desk last week and they duly noted down the dumping sites. The trolleys were still  there several days later so I tried to telephone the store but all lines were busy. There was no store e-mail address on the website so I e-mailed ASDA national customer services with all the details.

One of the Service Team replied:

I'm concerned to hear about this as it hadn't been removed by our colleagues from the store. We do employ porters to stop customers taking trolleys. We're also rolling out an industry leading system called Cartronics. When a customer tries to push a trolley out of our car park, the brakes will stop it from moving. These measures help us to limit the number of trolleys removed from our stores.

If any of our customers ever feel the need to complain we certainly want to put things right as soon as possible. I've spoken to the duty manager at our Wembley store and asked him/her to arrange for the trolley to be collected and returned to the store as soon as possible.

When the trolleys were still not collected (these pictures were taken today)  I e-mailed again and was told that it would take 72 hours to remove them! In that time of course children may well have played with them and changed their location. Many will be filled up with rubbish.

Of course customers who remove the trolleys are at fault but surely ASDA have a responsibility to make sure trolleys are not taken out of the store site and to have a quick and effective collection system when they are.

I understand that supermarkets can be fined if they allow trolleys to be taken away and abandoned.

Now Lib Dems Call for Civic Centre Library to be Scaled Down to Save Other Libraries

The new state of the art £100m Civic Centre was agreed by all three political parties during the last administration amidst claims that it was 'cost neutral' in the long term, environmentally friendly and would enhance the status of the borough. Brent Green Party was the only political party to question the project and its cost.

Labour had second thoughts during the election campaign and promised to review the project but once elected decided to go ahead. On December 16th, Reg Colwill deputy leader of the Conservative Group wrote to the local press and said, 'We don't need a new sparkling civic centre at the detriment of people's jobs and front-line services'. Kenton Conservatives launched a campaign to save Preston library. 

Work has already started on the Civic Centre site opposite Wembley Arena. Skanska the builders appointed by Brent Council have outlined their December work programme in a Newsletter. LINK TO NEWSLETTER

Now the Liberal Democrats are suggesting that  the new library at the Civic Centre should be scaled down. They argue that the proposed library is three times the size of the one at the Town Hall and would cost £3m of the total Civic Centre costs.They argue that the money saved by scaling it down could be used to safeguard the future of the six libraries threatened with closure. 


As contracts have been signed and  work has already started it is unclear whether the Conservative bid to abandon the project or the Liberal Democrat's proposal to modify it could be implemented without penalties. I think I can hear the stable door slamming shut after the horse has flown!

It is also uncertain that scale down would release 'real money' (actual cash this year) that could be used to save the threatened libraries.


With the Brent cuts now a national issue the debate will heat up over the next few weeks as the cuts and library closures are discussed at the local consultation forums.

Libraries for Life for Londoners have posted a story on the .library cuts in Brent and made the link with the Civic Centre project. LINK