Forum Topic

Ealing Library closures

Dear Ealing folk,Ealing Council wants to close a quarter of our libraries, and only mass protest can stop them. You can help stop them cutting our communities to ribbons, at http://saveyourlibrary.com

Sean Ashcroft ● 5512d15 Comments

PhilThank you.I know the Hanwell roof has problems, but that is not going to cost £0-5M. That is why make and mend should be adopted to preserve the building and we can worry about the rest later. Any chance your officers can send you the condition reports. And does the Council have to use contractors with very expensive overheads?I don't know about the car park but what is obvious is that £5M+ is totally inappropriate at this point of the cash flow life cycle.If Labour just can't let go of this silly approach, then let us see them prove that they have the public interest at heart and build a bit of the car park, and recycle the balance into libraries and day centres - which for me are far more important.

George Knox ● 5510d

George,I haven't seen the condition reports.  I have seen Hanwell library and I know that they cannot use some rooms because the roof is not sound.  Ask most people if they want a multi-storey car park or a new library and you know what the answer is going to be.  Not the car park!S106 money is not in great supply for obvious reasons.  Often it is specifically linked to a particular use in the legal (S106) agreement.  Where there is flexibility Labour's priorities are not libraries.  Check out their capital budget.  £5.5 million for a car park in Southall.  No capital for libraries.  The capital budget includes their expectations from S106.

Phil Taylor ● 5510d

PhilHave you seen the condition report and have you a sense of how urgent the work is, and could we not have make and mend until the worst of the crisis has passed?Is there any S106 money?

George Knox ● 5510d

I don't know how the union works here, but are you saying that the union will stand idly by while libraries are closed and so all the paid staff lose their jobs anyway, instead of some staff continuing in employment supported by some volunteers?The union I used to belong to wasn't that stupid and neither was the management.

George Knox ● 5510d

James,Two years ago we agreed to move part of the way down the line of streamlining the back office.  It was agreed that there was further to go.  It was a case of wanting to move in stages rather than wanting to impose too large a change on the service in one go.  I have seen Hanwell library myself.  I have not had a chance to visit Perivale.  My understanding is that both of these buildings need extensive work - make good exterior's, new windows, rewire, etc.  So not a lick of paint.  Full refurbs of old, unmodernised buildings is what is required.  Hence the price.  They are pretty big buildings.

Phil Taylor ● 5510d

Hi Phil,Why were you not able to make the changes you suggest when you were in charge of the libraries?Also £500k-£1m seems a huge sum to refurbish a single library - what does this cover?

James Brown ● 5510d

There is certainly a place for more volunteer activity in Ealing's libraries. Unfortunately Unite etc. (ie the Labour Group) unions make this impossible as library volunteers are not allowed to stack the bookshelves or issue books (as a recently removed poster for volunteer recruitment in the Central Library emphatically said. Neither skill requires more than a GCSE!

Maggie Tomlinson ● 5510d

Rich people have space at home in which to study.

Philippa Bond ● 5510d

Sean,You are right to highlight this threat.  It is likely that the Labour council administration will look hard at Perivale and Hanwell libraries.  They will argue that these buildings are in poor condition and under-used.  They will argue that there is no capital around to revamp them.  Note that the Tories promised to refurbish these libraries in their manifesto.  It would cost somewhere in the region of £500K-£1M to refurbish each of these libraries, a sum that could be easily afforded if you weren't proposing to spend £5.5 million building a car park in Southall.  So the capital argument does not stack up.  There is a squeeze on the revenue it is true.  This could be addressed in a number of ways.  Two years ago when I was in charge of libraries we took £400K of costs out of the libraries back office and there is still scope to go further with this.  See the brilliant video of Tim Coates here:http://philtaylor.org.uk/?p=4367In my view we still spend too much money on too many library managers and too many over-qualified people who are un-interested in serving the public directly.  We could have longer opening hours and more welcoming customer-oriented people out front in our libraries and still save money.  In addition there is no reason why you could not look at some kind of community solution for these buildings that sees them run on a voluntary basis at least in part.  Library supporters will need to work out whether they want to be ideologically pure or whether they want libraries over the next year or so. Beware the Labour council's property strategy.  This is an officer-led scheme that seeks to sell off a number of community assets, typically used by the third sector, in order to fund the building of three shiny new council offices.  Expect to hear more about the property strategy and the shutting of these two libraries.

Phil Taylor ● 5511d

The decision on library service cuts in Ealing Borough will take place after the public consultation, which is slated to begin this month. May sounds about right.If borough residents leave it until after the publication of consultation findings to protest it will be too late, because there will be only a matter of weeks between publication and decisions being made.Also, the council is committed to fewer but better libraries" (their words), so the consultation at best is a way for them to fine tune library cuts.At worse, the consultation is an expensive PR exercise.Either way, if we don't act now then we will not be in a position to exert pressure on decision makers.

Sean Ashcroft ● 5511d

Pitshanger Library & many others agreed to close for an extra day a week for the 3-day week in the 1970's & have still not re-opened on that day, Mothballing would not workwe must fight to keep ALL Ealing's Libarys OPENI have heard a rumour that no decision will be made until May.

Walter Wyeth ● 5511d

Rich people just buy books when they fancy.

Philippa Bond ● 5511d

At the very worst mothball them and give them back once the crisis diminishes.

George Knox ● 5512d

Perhaps we should be paying more in Countil Tax?

Philippa Bond ● 5512d

Sean, what's your solution? Where should bigger cuts be made elsewhere to compensate?

Ed Yelland ● 5512d