Local library closures Post Reply

[Annabel (admin)]

Dear All,

Forwarded from a local mum, although a few more of you have mentioned it to me today too

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/artic ... get_review

Annabel x

[KatherineHepburn]

This is just awful!!

What on earth is the point of keeping our council tax so low if we don't actually have any services left???

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/artic ... get_review

Not to mention that all the classes that take place in the local libraries will thus be made homeless also.

Local residents need to watch these plans very, very closely. Once libraries are closed they rarely ever open again.

[mummyof1]

I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of cuts Wandsworth will bring in without much press. The argument they seem to be using is that they couldn't raise council tax - as we have the lowest council tax in London and an above average affluent residents i think this should be questioned. As a borough with a very high percentage of young children it is vital that they have the opportunity to visit and use Libraries. Amazon is not the answer to get children interested in reading!

[FriendsofYGL]

Good to see word is spreading about this. There's a meeting about it at the town hall tonight (Monday 15 November) at 7.30pm. If you can go along, it might be worth doing so. We're particularly concerned that both options the Council is considering will see York Gardens library close - even though it's on a relatively poor council estate where kids have few alternatives.

Hoping to make my concerns felt at the Town Hall this evening!

[FriendsofYGL]

This evening the local council voted on which options of library closures/ reduced hours will be consulted on over the next few months. A decision will be taken in February.

There are still - essentially - two options being proposed (you can read all the detail on the council website).

1. Close 6 neighbourhood libraries across the borough (York Gardens, Northcote, Battersea Park, Earlsfield, Roehampton, Southfields)
2. Close York Gardens Library only and reduce the opening hours at all the remaining 10 libraries in the borough.

York Gardens Library is on the north edge of the Winstanley Estate (north of Clapham Junction) and serves a particularly deprived area of our community.

On the face of it, option 2 looks like the better option for everyone and it would appear that the council are relying on this for the consultation that is about to start. However, the council could have chosen to suggest other alternatives which do not rely on the closure of a library in an area where there are few other community facilities and which offers children who in many cases do not have books/computers at home a safe place to access these, to do schoolwork etc, and a place for adults to learn, seek for jobs and get other social support.

Both options that will be consulted on mean that this really important facility will be closed. Option 1 is of course also dreadful (and the council are relying on the fact that this option will be strongly opposed to make option 2 more bearable).

It is really important that during this consultation everyone speaks out against BOTH options that are being proposed by the council. People who live in the area surrounding the York Gardens Library are less likely to make a fuss than communities surrounding the other libraries that are potentially impacted. Please help the council to realise that consultation requires genuine options / choice to enable a fair outcome for people in our local community who most rely on these services.

The council needs to appreciate that, while cuts may be necessary, there are ways of doing this which do not have the deepest impact on communities who need services most.

[custardy]

Thanks for this info SimpleSimonSays.

The library consultation seems to be another instance of the Council putting up a "dodgy" set of ideas. Which is anyone going to vote for, close 6 libraries, or close 1?! This is no choice at all, and clearly a waste of time and money going to consultation on this basis.

I sincerely hope that all Wandsworth residents will unite to keep York Gardens open. It serves a community which is deprived, within a borough which includes massive wealth and privilege in other geographic areas. Taking away a library, and all the additional services and space (eg internet access, information about services, space for children to do homework) which come with it, from a community less well off than those around Northcote, Putney or Roehampton, would show the Council in a very poor light. There are plenty of people living around Nappy Valley who will be outraged and indignant about the idea of Northcote library closing, and who are able to put up a very good fight, when in fact it is other communities which need the support and they who arguably need the facility far more than the privileged folk elsewhere.

I don't want to see any library closing, but the Council needs to rethink this plan.

[mumble]

There is extreme wealth and extreme poverty all over Wandsworth though!

Isn't it just about more economical to buy someone the book rather than keep York gardens open for them to borrow it from!!!

How many visits are made from the Winstanley estate? what are they for? what is the walking distance/travel links like for other libraries? could the books be put into local schools more effectively?
Agree totally with whoever said it higher up once libraries close they rarely reopen

what alternatives are those who object proposing?

[monaco]

We use Northcote library a lot for our daughter and would hate to see it closed. However, I am really appalled by the idea that the council would want to shut down the York library, which surely is of more help to the community leaving around it.

Both options on the consultation are really not acceptable.

Could we suggest a third one: what would be the additional council tax that each Wandsworth resident would have to pay to maintain all six libraries (albeit with reduced hours for all of them) ?

[sheila b]

that would probably be a few pence on council tax i expect- good point! -- Please spare a thought for those families and chidlren who useYork gdns library, don't let The Council get away with this plan to remove a vital, well used and much loved library from those who need it most-( Join the campaign to Save York Gardens Library

[stuck@home]

I am a local user of the Northcote library and as much as reduced hours aren’t ideal it is better than the full closure of the library. In addition to general library services it provides a much needed venue for local groups, e.g. a reading group, singing classes for babies, story time for toddlers and it instils in children a love of books and reading from an early age.

WE MUST KEEP THE LIBRARY OPEN

Please help by doing two things:

1. Voice your concerns.

The article is available to read in the library or on http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/news/artic ... get_review . To respond use the link and click on the icon ‘Comment on this article’ or hand in written comments to the library or send to Library Review Consultation, Library & Heritage Service Administration, Room 219, Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, LONDON. SW18 2PU

2. Use it

Unless you use it, you lose it!!! Is every member of your household a member? Do you know you can take out up to 15 books at a time for 3 weeks? If you don’t fancy a read – there are talking books, DVDs, language courses. All audio visual stuff is free for kids with a small charge for adults. Need to get out of the house? Escape to the library and use the FREE computers or just sit back and read the newspapers.

My view is that if the library shuts down, the building will be sold off to some retail chain and we will NEVER be able to get a library back in the area again but we can fight with our feet.........

[FriendsofYGL]

Salskie - that's definitely the spirit. When you participate in the consultation please also support York Gardens Library as it is really this library that is being singled out above all others in the borough. The residents of this ward need the support of everyone in Wandsworth to enable their library to survive. It is an essential resource for local children, many of whom do not have computers at home and use the library for their homework and to learn. 32,000 books were loaned to children from York Gardens Library in 2008/9. Imagine what happens to the children of the Winstanley Estate if this library closes. Please support York Gardens, as well as your local library.

[FriendsofYGL]

To clarify, according to the Council's latest press release, they will now only go out to consultation on the option to close York Gardens Library. Again, this is a library where 32,000 children's books were loaned last year and which provides basically the only community facility for residents of the Winstanley Estate. The IT centre is used for children doing homework and also for adults to learn, earn qualifications and seek for jobs. Without this facility, this estate will become even more disadvantaged. Please write to your councillors and to the head of the library service and show your support for this library and the community around it. You do not need to be resident local to this library to understand the value it adds and to offer it your support.

[FriendsofYGL]

If you'd like to help the Council to realise that there is opposition to the closure of York Gardens Library, please write to explain your views to:

Your local councillors. Find out who they are here:
http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/info/20003 ... ncillors/1

Your MP. Jane Ellison ane.ellison.mp@parliament.uk

Lucy Allan, who chairs the committee who has made this decision: lallan@wandsworth.gov.uk

The head of the Library Service: andrewgreen@wandsworth.gov.uk

Or hand write / type up a letter and drop it off in any local library.

If the council respond, they will tell you lots of 'good' reasons why this library has been singled out for closure. However, the social value of this library has not been measured or accounted for at all. They may also say that the consultation has not yet started - which is true and you can write again when the consultation is open. However, as it currently stands they will consult on one option only, singling out York Gardens Library for closure. It's important to write now so that the council realise that people from all over Wandsworth are opposed to this plan.

Thanks.

[MamaH]

Yourk Gardens is my local library. I'm a bit late to this as I have long considered that there are a few to many libraries in Wandsworth, I borrow books from most of them and in terms of books I wouldn't have much of an issue. As it happens, we also have computers at home and books for my son, but I agree that isn't the case for all the kids in that area.

Because it occurred to me that books aren't the point about libraries. Even I don't attend the kids' groups anywhere else. And while I suspect that the problem is that it probably has lower attendance/ book borrowing and so on than other libraries, notably Northcote Road, say, the point Simon makes is a very important one. When I go in there after school chucking out time and at the weekend, there are definitely a significant number of kids getting on with their homework, using the internet and so on. Do the kids of Northcoate Road rely on those facilities in this way?

We also have reading groups and so on too, by the way. And Northcoate Road, I've always thought, is really very very close to Battersea Library. I suppose York Gardens is too, as the crow flies. It's up a hill though...

I suppose the issue is, in reality, that the people in my area will protest less than the people in the Northcote Road area.

[FriendsofYGL]

We have clarified with the library service the actual savings that WW council would make from closing the library. When you remove the costs that they will incur if they put in place the service replacements (e.g. children's librarian) that they have been suggesting in responses to emails that residents have sent in.

Total saving from closing YGL: £219K Cost of retaining various services e.g. children's librarian/moving IT centre to Battersea and other things council are considering: £92K Absolute cost reduction therefore: £127K

Keeping YGL but with reduce opening hours saves: £53K

Therefore, marginal cost saving for WBC by closing library, versus operating on reduced hours = £74K

The savings from closing YGL are paltry. Less than £1 per person who lives within a 1 mile radius of the library (80,000 people). And pocket money for a council with £105 million in the bank according to an Evening Standard article today.