CROYDON IN CRISIS: Up to seven of the borough’s libraries will close or be down-graded under Tory-run council’s plans – a decade after they last made similar proposals to flog off public assets.
By STEVEN DOWNES
Under threat again: Sanderstead Library, one of four public libraries the council wants to sell
Croydon’s Tory Mayor, Jason Perry, wants to close four of the borough’s 13 public libraries and down-grade three others.
The council has today announced a “public consultation”, and we all know what kind of lip-service exercise that will be, in which they propose to close and flog off public property at the libraries in Bradmore Green (Coulsdon), Broad Green, Sanderstead and Shirley.
It is little more than a decade since a previous Conservative-run administration, in which Perry was a cabinet member, put forward similarly destructive proposals.
This time round, Perry claims to be “listening to residents”.
All but one of Croydon’s libraries have been operating on much-reduced operating hours since the covid lockdown in 2020, and because of spending constraints imposed since the borough’s bankruptcy.
But in a statement issued at lunchtime today, Perry’s council claimed that their proposal is based on “analysis of the buildings including visitor numbers, size and condition of the buildings, the size and needs of the communities they serve and running costs”.
Also contained in the proposals appears to be a scheme to downgrade the service at three other libraries – New Addington, Purley and South Norwood — and turn them into some kind of “community hub”.
It is a legal duty of every local authority to provide a public library service, but there is no legislation to determine to what level that service needs to be delivered. Croydon’s current 13 libraries are supposed to serve a population of 385,000.
The library closures announcement comes as Croydon is supposedly London’s Borough of Culture.
As Inside Croydon revealed exclusively last month, Croydon’s Tories have had a firm of consultants working on a libraries report for most of the past year. As we warned in December: “It seems highly likely that ‘reduced usage’ of the libraries will be used by Tory Mayor Jason Perry as one of the major excuses for closing a quarter of the borough’s libraries.”
Under threat again: Bradmore Green Library was among those listed for closure in 2021
The latest proposals look remarkably similar to a previous consultation published in 2021. That consultation was damned by The Library Campaign for being unlawful.
Then, they recommended five libraries for closure: Bradmore Green, Shirley, Sanderstead, Broad Green and South Norwood. So just South Norwood gets off the hook this time round.
The council is claiming this time that the savings and sale income from the closure plan will allow Croydon’s six remaining libraries to return to a near “normal” operation and opening hours.
In its statement today, the council claimed that it “is proposing to consult residents on changes to its library service that will make it easier for more people across the borough to enjoy books and activities.
“Proposals include longer opening hours including weekends, improved facilities in fewer library buildings, and more staff to provide a new outreach service.”
A report has been submitted to next week’s council cabinet meeting (meetings where half a dozen appointees of Perry all nod, say little and vote through whatever the Mayor says).
The council claims that it has come up with the plan to close four libraries following “extensive research”.
The council says that it “has been listening to residents and staff who have said that despite best efforts, the service model isn’t working – that it doesn’t provide the opening hours needed or enough of the services that residents want and need”.
The council confirms Inside Croydon’s report from last month that Activist Group had been secretly appointed to conduct the review.
Downgraded: South Norwood’s cherished ‘brutalist’ library building faces being turned into a ‘hub’
“Research included looking at demand, local need, usage, demographics, the condition of buildings and resident feedback to date.”
The report to cabinet “proposes longer opening hours including weekends, with more events and services available to residents, by reducing the number of buildings and investing in well-used sites”.
No job losses are proposed, with the council intending to use the majority of the money saved from building costs to increase the number of library staff to provide the extended opening and outreach services.
Six libraries (Central, Ashburton, Thornton Heath, Norbury, Selsdon and Coulsdon) are proposed to be open five to six days a week, including Saturdays, “and will deliver an extensive offer of books, WiFi, PCs, study spaces and events,” the council says.
“These libraries have all proved to be well-used, accessible buildings that meet local needs. Future investment in these sites is recommended to improve the facilities and extend the opening times and services available.”
A 10-week consultation is set to launch from next week, with the final decision due in May.
“Despite the best efforts of our library staff, the current library model is failing and is not working for our residents,” Mayor Perry said.
“By having fewer buildings and more outreach services we will be able to provide libraries that are open five or six days per week, including Saturdays, offering a much wider range of services. This will be a great improvement on the current model of libraries only being open two or three days per week.”
Read more: Consultants’ year-long study looks to close four public libraries
Read more: Lip-service webinars fail to consider libraries’ community future
Read more: Libraries are our long-term investment. Don’t squander it
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
So the party that put up Council Tax by 15% are now proposing even more cuts to services!
Not only are they planning to close these libraries, it looks like they are planning to sell off the buildings so they can never be opened again.
This is the same old Conservative plan – cut public services and sell off the assets on the cheap. Their rich friends make a huge profit, we’re left with even less.
We are due to have an election in the next twelve months and people could vote in MPs that will demand proper funding for services like our libraries. We can’t let the Conservatives destroy our services when there is still a chance to save them.
Croydon council should not close Old Coulsdon, Sanderstead, Shirley and Broad Green libraries; a possible rescue model being based on community activity & charity and private sector rental as is hinted by council to come at Purley, New Addington and South Norwood in any case.
Ah, but piss-poor Perry needs the property sales income to balance the bankrupt council’s books
The capital receipts from selling these libraries would take a long time to realise and would be unlikely to secure their true value as they would, like the Croydon hotel, be sold without the uplift of planning permission.
The council has a lot of assets to sell and is proving to be very slow in selling them as underlined in the Improvement Board letter that Inside Croydon reports on today.
The Improvement Board said “it is important that the Council maximises the assets to be sold and ensures this is undertaken in a purposeful fashion. To achieve this the Council has recognised that it will need to take a more commercially proactive approach for future disposals.”
The slow sales are losing of lot of saved interest by the way thus reducing service provision further in a council with the second highest council tax in Greater London and whose operating moto is “less for more”.
Without the capacity to sell in a timely fashion better to retain the assets and secure a return that covers costs that support continued provision in the community.
Croydon Conservatives said in 2021-
“To many across the borough it is more than just a library, it is their vital community hub, a place they can seek assistance from the fantastic, qualified librarians, a place to use the Internet for studies, a place for peace and quiet to study, or a place to not feel alone and isolated. Our library buildings are more than bricks and mortar, they are a vital resource for some of the most deprived across the borough. Libraries are seen as a vital resource within the community, if you are expected to get a bus to visit your library, I think it is fair to assume, that many would not class it as a community asset anymore, and therefore any closure no matter how close the next nearest library is, will create a community deficit which is simply unacceptable”
https://www.croydonconservatives.com/news/labours-budget-means-broken-promise-local-libraries
In 2021 Chris Philp wrote on Facebook
“Our local libraries are once again under threat of permanent closure. Sanderstead and Bradmore Green in Coulsdon are two of at least five libraries across the borough that could be shut down due to the Council’s bankruptcy. These closures would mean the loss of around half our local libraries. ….
Cutting important services like the libraries however is not the answer to the Council’s financial problems. This is a deliberate decision by the Labour administration to target areas where they don’t think they will lose votes in the future. The amount of money that would be saved by closing the libraries is a drop in the ocean of the Council’s debt – just £0.5 million per year would be saved, compared to the £250 million that the Council is putting into their loss making developer, Brick by Brick. ……
Last year I set up a successful campaign to stop plans to close libraries in Coulsdon, Sanderstead, Purley and Shirley.”
Closing libraries and selling off the land I presume is the plan is an absolute joke. I can’t speak for all sites but I flex between several on a weekly basis due to the already reduced running capacity of all borough libraries and can say that they are well used and well cherished by the communities they serve. I put to the local government that the numbers surely reflect the need and demand and that keeping them open works for everyone. They are an important part of the communities they surround as all libraries are wherever they’re placed. They help field ambition and education and inspire the young. They are a place for all ages and like any previous proposals, closing them will not be met with acceptance. I will support in any way possible to combat the proposals of these badly placed people pulling the strings.
So Broad Green and Selhurst – the two most populated wards with the most critical need for this space and learning environment are again disadvantaged to enable this Mayor to meet a debt that should never have been run up in the first place without effective oversight.
Library services need a huge overhaul and to be brought into the 21st Century. But in Croydon’s and Perry’s “year of culture” the only cultural growth is something that falls into the realms of interesting Funghi.
Reduce the hours and be inconsistant and hey ho we do not need those places as they have less people going to them.
This has always been seen to be a carpetbagging grab for land and with the pretense of servicing debt along with sweetening pots for developers to suckle of the public tit.
Sadly the incredibly low expectation has been excavated even further (pardon the building pun)
Does anyone, apart from pensioners looking for a kip, use our libraries? All a bit 19th century
Try being a kid who wants to get on in the world but lives in a cramped household with no computer and no quiet place to study.
Clearly you don’t use the library or you wouldn’t be asking this!!!!
Fair point Caralyn. haven’t been to Purley library for a while – last time I went it was closed.