Packed meeting hears library safe despite cuts – for a year 19/01/11
West Barnes Library has surely never been so full. Long before the public meeting began, there was standing room only as more than 240 library supporters – and one dissenter – filled the building on 18 January, 2011.
Some even brought their own chairs to hear Cllr Martin Whelton, Merton Council’s Cabinet Member for Community and Culture, and Ingrid Lackajis, Head of Library and Heritage Service, confront a barrage of questions, suggestions, criticism and pleas over their plans to keep it open at lunchtimes but closed for an extra day a week, Mondays, from April.
“The crowd here this evening has exceeded my wildest expectations,” began Cllr Whelton, who later admitted he expected about 50 – not 242 – people to attend.
“West Barnes Library will not be closing – this year,” he added, which prompted applause. “But it’s been a very, very difficult budgetary round of at the council.
“We have had to make £26million of savings, and we have to make £70million over four years, so we’ve significantly had our grant cut.
“The one thing we are proposing for this year is to close the library on Mondays but to open on lunchtimes on other days. So there’ll be an overall reduction of four-and-a-half hours a week.”
He later confirmed the funding was secure to keep West Barnes Library open until at least the end of the coming financial year, April 2012.
Welcome turnout
Cllr Whelton introduced Ms Lackajis, who said: “It’s very pleasing to see so many people turning out and supporting their local library. It really is a very, very welcome turnout.”
She explained that the council had to find “an extraordinary amount of money” in savings, which she described as “an unprecedented amount”.
“Each service has had to look at where it can find savings,” she said. “The library service is not exempt from this.”
“One of the things we have tried very hard to do in the library service is not to say ‘let’s just cut libraries and close libraries’. How can we do something different that actually keeps our libraries and keeps services open?
“We have looked at different way of working. We’re working far more closely in partnership with other agencies who help to deliver some of the services for us.
“We are also implementing a very active volunteer strategy, which helps us to support the staff.”
Consistent message
Ms Lackajis continued: “We’ve considered comments over the years from various surveys, and more recently we did an opening-hours survey. The consistent thing that has come back from those surveys has been ‘why do you close at lunchtimes?’; ‘why do you close on Wednesdays?’. And that’s been the consistent message.”
By working with volunteers and partners, as well as reducing staffing and changing how they work and their focus, as well as making sure the book stock matches requirements, the council’s library service had managed to increase opening hours across the serice by 19 hours a week, she said. “This goes very much against the trend of what is happening in other local authorities.”
Cllr Whelton and Ms Lackajis later took questions from residents. Answering one point, Cllr Whelton said closing the library on Mondays would save £21,000.
One visitor prompted gasps when he said there were “too many libraries for the current age” and that people from West Barnes could go to Raynes Park if their own library closed. “Most people have got the internet at home,” he added. During the ensuing hubbub there were cries of “philistine” and one resident joked about a possible good read: “Murder in the library!”
Not rocket science
A strong supporter of the library said: “I think it’s a shame and perhaps a little simplistic just to look at the activity numbers and base on that whether you’re going to close a library for a day, or a week or a lifetime. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that Wimbledon Library is going to have more activity that this library.
“But you do have to consider the impact on the community here. When you walk down West Barnes Lane and see a number of closed shop fronts and consider your responsibility if you did close this library. I think we all have to take responsibility to spread the word and really get people through t his place. Use the schools creatively, get them into this place. Then in a year or so’s time, if you are considering closing this library – it might be an easy option – and you’ll be embarrassed to do so because you’ve got a number of people using the facility.”
Several members of the audience suggested, and were enthusiastic, about the idea of setting up a Friends of West Barnes Library group, and names and addresses of those interested were taken by John Nicholson, of Errol Gardens.
Our village green
Among the many impassioned pleas to retain the library, one woman won emotional applause when she said West Barnes Library, where people come to browse, read a paper, read community notices, attend a talk or coffee morning and so on, was “our village green”.
Cllr Whelton ended the meeting by saying: “It’s quite clear to me that this library is at the heart of the community. It has been very difficult for me to take the decisions to reduce the hours, but we are where we are. But I think many of the views expressed here tonight express the community opinion.”
● Would you miss West Barnes Library if it was closed? Let us know at mail@motspurpark.info.
You can email Cllr Martin Whelton (Labour, Pollards Hill ward), the Cabinet member for communities and culture: martin.whelton@merton.gov.uk
You can also email West Barnes councillors with your views:
Cllr Gilli Lewis-Lavender (Conservative): gilli.lewis-lavender@merton.gov.uk
Cllr Iain Dysart (Lib Dem): iain.dysart@merton.gov.uk
Cllr Mary-Jane Jeanes (Lib Dem): mary-jane.jeanes@merton.gov.uk
Now see what you can do to help Save West Barnes Library
External links:
Council minutes of meeting with questions and answers
Wimbledon Guardian:
Video and report of meeting
West Barnes Library
Cllr Martin Whelton’s blog
Save West
Barnes Library (Facebook group)
Wimbledon Guardian: ‘Cuts announced’
Public Libraries
News – survey of UK libraries under threat
Wimbledon Guardian: Could volunteers counter
library hours cuts?
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[MotspurPark.info tries hard to get facts right, but if you spot a mistake or something missing, please write to mail@motspurpark.info]
Cllr Martin Whelton and Ingrid Lackajis
Hearing the views: Cllr Martin Whelton
Cllrs Lewis-Lavender, Dysart and Jeanes
Big turnout: More than 240 attended
Packed: Library was filled for the meeting
