Improving Our Local Democracy

Cllr James Powney, the lead member for libraries, points out on his blog that the Extraordinary Council Meeting on library closures to be held on April 13th will make no difference because under the present Constitution full council now has no power to overturn decisions made by the Council Executive. He says it is just a 'talking shop'. In another posting he laments the 'partisan' atmosphere of the Scrutiny Committee which he suggests if used properly could have a role in improving council decision making.

The whole issue of council democracy could do with a fresh look.  Recently I have talked to Labour and Liberal Democrat backbench councillors who feel that under the present system they have very little voice in their own party's policy and little chance to contribute. Some are quite depressed by the experience and not likely to stand for election again.

On a wider level there is a danger that citizens who engage with the council will become disaffected by what some see as a disdainful rejection of the representations and proposals  they have made on issues such as library closures, Charteris Sports Centre and day centres.  Surely with the Coalition undermining local government through cuts and very low voter turn-out in local elections, the Council should be promoting active citizenship rather than dismissing it?

Council call police in as they close Charteris

From the Save Charteris Sports Centre Facebook page:

As most of you are aware, Charteris ceased operations on Thursday, March 31st. Council, in a last act of thumbing their nose to all of those who worked hard to keep it open and have supported Charteris over the years with their patronage, shut the centre in the middle of the afternoon rather than their normal 10pm closing time. They brought police officers to shoo everyone away and a work crew to board up the premises. The staff weren’t even alerted in advance. Evidently, they can’t imagine that those of us subject to their budget cuts and trapped by their inability to imagine another course of action could actually leave quietly and respectfully, as we would any other night. Shame on them.

It is likely that the Council feared that the premises may have been occupied by campaigners ahead of closure. Next step libraries?

The Curious Case of the Missing E-Mail

Save Preston Library campaigners searched fruitlessly over the weekend for any assessment or even mention of their proposals for a community library in the report that is going to the Council Executive on April 11th. Cllr Powney had mentioned the proposal publicly when talking to the Wembley Observer about responses to the Library Transformation Consultation. The campaign had asked Brent Council to keep the library open for a further six months while they finalised plans to run it on the successful Chalfont St Giles Community Library model.

Yesterday it emerged that Sue McKenzie had not received the campaign's proposals which had been sent to the Council on March 4th, the deadline day for responses.  The author confirmed that the e-mail had been sent and asked that the Council consider their proposals. Sue McKenzie initially said that it was too late as proposals had to be read by five officers and then promised to consult colleagues today to see what could be done.

The campaigners also discovered that only 50 of the 400 letters sent by the children of  Preston Park Primary School had been seen by Sue McKenzie and that these representations had not been mentioned in the report. Local children will be some of the main losers if the library closes.

The report to the Executive does mention Preston Library.....in terms of options for selling the site.

If the community library proposals are not assessed by officers and an addendum published to the report,  the Executive will be making a decision based on incomplete information and will be ignoring proposals made by a campaign that collected nearly 6,000 signatures on its petition.

Charteris Boarded Up but Campaign Goes On

Brent Council lost no time in following through Sue Harper's promise that Charteris Sports Centre would close 'in the near future' after she had rejected the Save Charteris Campaign's proposal to run it as a community venture. Campaigners expected it to close on Friday April 1st but in fact the council boarded it up on Thursday.

Meanwhile the determined supporters of the Centre haven;'t given up and this message was pasted on their Facebook Page:

Brent Council has rejected the Business Plan put forward by the Save the Charteris Campaign Group and therefore the centre will close on Friday 1st April (how appropriate).

Instead of trying to work in partnership and seeing the bigger picture (a Business Plan) of what we are trying to achieve, Brent has focused on every minor detail of our capability to run the centre – details that can only be fully covered in weeks rather than the days we’ve had to content with.

We have a viable business model approved by the London Marathon Trust. We have the full support of the GLA. We now also have written financial commitments from Funding bodies.

We are going to answer the Council on each of their points and prove to them we can run the centre – better than they can.

We will update you shortly with next steps, how we will move into the next stage of the campaign to keep the Charteris open and how you can all get involved.

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

Standing up for the NHS

One of the most powerful statements in support of the NHS you are likely to see:

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.

'Democracy key to academy decisions' say Brent teaching unions

Save Our Schools from Jason N. Parkinson on Vimeo.

The three main teaching unions (NUT, ATL and NASUWT) have written to headteachers and governors in Brent putting forward their negotiating position on conversion to academies. The letter follows Claremont High School's decision to convert to an academy from April 1st despite 70% of staff voting against the proposal.

The unions say they are opposed to academies because they are a 'large step on the way to privatisation of the management of state education',  will undermine hard-fought for national pay and conditions and will 'undermine the local family of schools and the role of the local authority'.

In a key passage they state:

Our position is one of democracy. It is that, before any application is made for Academy Conversion, there is full debate, with arguments from both sides, ending in a ballot of all staff on the question, 'Do you support ________ school becoming an Academy?'

The unions point out that Governors will want to ascertain the views of staff before any application and that this is the 'best. most democratic, clearest and most unequivocal way of doing so'.  They claim that consultation is often conducted in a way that distorts or glosses over the views of consultees so propose a secret, independently overseen ballot. They stress that it is important that parents know the views of staff before forming their own views on any proposals. The unions say that they will be looking at ensuring 'all legal avenues are explored and that parents are properly informed and consulted'.

The unions conclude:

We know that as Governors you will feel that you have to take tough and hard-headed decisions. As part of the largest volunteer workforce in the country you are also custodians of the system as a whole and we ask you to consider both the short-term and the long-term consequences of Academy conversion.

The letter comes at a time when it is believed that many Brent secondary schools are reviewing their position following Claremont's decision and seven Harrow Schools are consulting on becoming academies.