Closure opposition: parents, grandparents and youngsters at Bradmore Green Library yesterday, before it closed its doors for a final time
Parents, grandparents and youngsters gathered at Bradmore Green Library yesterday, the council-run facility’s final day of operation.
Bradmore Green, in Old Coulsdon, together with three other public libraries in Croydon – Sanderstead, Shirley and Broad Green – are being closed by order of Mayor Jason Perry, despite widespread opposition and a public consultation report that showed some of those libraries being closed to be among the best used in the borough, even with the limited opening hours of the past four years.
“Sadly we have the last day of Bradmore [Green] Library today after 60 years of serving local residents in Old Coulsdon,” the East Coulsdon Residents’ Association posted.
Instead of weekly “rhyme time” sessions for toddlers and early readers at Bradmore Green, the cash-strapped council is now to pay for a bus, every Monday morning, to transport library users from Old Coulsdon to Coulsdon Library, which is remaining open.
Bradmore Green is closing, despite an 11th-hour appeal to Chris Bryant, Labour’s new minister at the DCMS, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, who said, “We will continue to closely monitor developments concerning Croydon’s library service.”
Just don’t get your hopes up…
Local authorities, like Croydon, are duty-bound by law to provide “a comprehensive and efficient library service”. It’s just that no one has ever bothered to define what “a comprehensive and efficient library service” should look like: Croydon now has nine operating libraries, instead of 13, supposedly serving the biggest borough population in its history.
It is the DCMS’s task to provide some definition and oversight of library services, though nearly 800 public libraries have closed in Britain since 2010, as the DCMS, under a Conservative-led government, has looked the other way.
Arts minister: Labour’s Chris Bryant is ‘interested’ in the fate of Croydon’s libraries. Just not interested enough to do anything about them
From the letter from the ministry that was received this week, that isn’t going to change under a Labour government.
“The government fully recognises the importance and value of public libraries for all members of the public,” said the response sent on behalf of Bryant, the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts, and Tourism.
“As you are aware the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 (the Act) requires all local authorities to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for determining how best to meet the needs of its communities and deliver its statutory requirement within available resources.” The buck, duly passed.
“You may also be aware that the Secretary of State has a statutory duty to superintend, and promote the improvement of, the public library service provided by local authorities and secure the proper discharge of the duties conferred on local authorities under the Act.
“Under Section 10 of the Act, the Secretary of State may intervene if she is of the opinion that a local authority is failing to carry out its duty under the Act to deliver a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ library service for library users, by making a remedial order following a local inquiry.”
The nameless civil servant continued their letter by actually citing the fixed consultation that the Tory-run council in Croydon had staged to justify their pre-determined closure plans.
Closed: Bradmore Green Library had one of the best value-for-money figures of all the borough’s libraries
There are, the civil servant notes, “a number of mitigations to enable Bradmore Green library users to continue to access library services in Croydon”, and they even mention the shuttle bus. THis is Britain in 2024: spending money on a bus, so that they don’t spend money on a librarian.
“At present our view is that your representations do not provide a basis for considering that the impact of the changes agreed at the Cabinet meeting of Croydon Council on 25 September might call into question whether Croydon Council is complying with its legal obligation to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service.”
The civil servant did, at least, then lay out what local residents would need to do to make a case that would persuade Bryant and his department to deal with their representation as a complaint within the scope of the legislation.
It seems that the bar has been set impossibly high, though, as the outsourcing of austerity by central government looks to be continuing into its 15th year.
Read more: No money, no plan, no honesty: Mayor still closing 4 libraries
Read more: Perry ducks scrutiny over council financials that don’t add up
Read more: Closing libraries is a sign of ‘failed administration’ – say Tories
Read more: ‘The council is dismantling our borough, service by service’
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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
Anyone who voted “for change” and Labour in the recent General Election should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. To misquote Dusty Springfield, “the only man who would ever cheat me, was the son of a toolmaker”
It’s important, we’ll continue to monitor the situation etc etc, we’ll continue to do absolutely nothing… how twee