It’s Friday 13th, so unlucky for some, as Croydon has designated this as the final day for applications to take over the four public libraries ordered closed by Tory Mayor Jason Perry.
Closed: Sanderstead Library is one of the four libraries closed by the Tory-run council
Bradmore Green, in Old Coulsdon, Sanderstead, Shirley and Broad Green libraries all closed their doors last month, despite overwhelming public opposition, despite viable alternative plans, despite millions of pounds of developer levy funds unspent on the buildings’ upkeep, and despite some of the libraries being among the best-used in the borough.
It was only after the closures that Croydon Council swung into action to try to find alternative uses for the buildings, with a poorly notified and very short-notice consultation period which, according to some reports, attracted barely any interest at all.
Mayor Perry’s council had promised that the closed libraries’ buildings would not be flogged off to developers to help plug the gaping black hole in his budget. Unless, of course, no community groups come forward to take over the running of the buildings… So by gas-lighting the people he claims to listen to, Perry will then be able to claim he has the perfect excuse to sell them. Cunning, eh?
The council has barely put itself out, or given any group of community volunteers, much time to put together a worthwhile proposal.
“Friday 13 is your last chance to apply to run a community base in your area,” the council’s propaganda unit tweeted from its bunker late on Wednesday this week.
Late notice: the council’s less-than-half-hearted attempt to find new users for its closed libraries
“We are working with local groups and residents so four of our former library buildings in Croydon can become community bases to provide different but valuable services.”
On the council’s website, it says: “Cabinet has approved the new library service model, following an extensive library service review. The new model will have nine libraries, each open five ti six days a week, including Saturdays. This enhanced service ensures greater access to resources for many residents.”
Users of the four closed libraries get an infinitely worse service, with a mini-bus offered one morning each week to take them to one of the still open libraries.
If agreed – and the council has a very poor track record in fostering and nurturing community use of its buildings – the ex-libraries will become “Community Bases”.
“To ensure our Community Bases are sustainable these four library buildings will need to be let in a way which is cost-neutral to the council. This means whilst rent may not be charged, any community partners and residents will need to pay all the other associated costs of running and maintaining these buildings,” says the local authority that for almost four years has been sitting on £1.8million of Community Infrastructure Levy money, earmarked for library repairs, without actually doing anything about it.
A council cabinet report from May 2021 showed it had been agreed that CIL cash would be used for the “replacement of obsolete self-service kiosks and install Open+ in three libraries” (£650,000); to fit out the new South Norwood Library (£890,000) – that’s the one built by Brick by Brick, which has never been used.
And it allocated £265,000 for “repairs and maintenance at Bradmore Green, Broad Green, Sanderstead and Shirley”. Yep… the four libraries that Mayor Perry has just closed, and which remain unrepaired and unmaintained.
Some reports suggest that the uptake from community groups to take on the burden of maintaining the cash-strapped council’s library buildings has been less than successful.
One library campaigner tweeted a picture of an empty table in a deserted, closed library. “Library outreach,” they noted, sarcastically. “Spot the number of participants.
‘Shambolic’: no one turned up for a council session on the future of one of its closed libraries
“A gross waste of our money and no one knows what is going on. No answer to questions either.” Croydon Council, the tweeter stated, was “completely floundering”.
“Senior council officers/councillors haven’t a clue… The sad thing is that the library workers delivering the service before closure knew their audience well. I suspect we are in this mess as they haven’t a voice, just the way community voice has been ignored.
“Today has been shambolic. The DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] are being fed lies and the Croydon community is all the poorer.
“Chris Bryant [the arts minister] needs to take his role seriously and hear direct[ly] from the community about the damage Croydon is inflicting on the communities of Croydon.
“So many heartbreaking stories of people adversely affected by this ill-thought-out plan that saves nothing.”
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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To misquote Harold Macmillan: “The sale of assets is common with Councils when they run into financial difficulties. First, the Riesco ceramics go, and then all the front-line staff are sacked. Then the Library buildings go.”
It was obvious that there was never any real intention to let community groups take over these buildings. The only purpose of this exercise was to let Perry sell off the buildings to try to fill the massive holes in his budget.
Once these Libraries are gone, is he going to try to close and sell off more next year?
`What kind of monster would close a public library?’
I think that quotation was from author and ‘ National Treasure” Stephen Fry.
I could not verify that online, but found several other positive quotations instead.
I copy seven of them here….
https://localbookdonations.com/library-quotes/#authors
“The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world”
– Rita Dove
“A library is infinity under a roof”
– Gail Carson Levine
“Librarians save lives: by handing the right book, at the right time, to a kid in need”
– Judy Blume
“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library”
– Albert Einstein
“When I was young, we couldn’t afford much. But, my library card was my key to the world.”
John Goodman
“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.”
– Ray Bradbury
“The library connects us with the insight and knowledge of the greatest minds that ever were”
– Carl Sagan, astronomer
Boo, these are all Americans – mostly people no one has heard of. I’m guessing that, apart from the National Treasure’, you couldn’t find Englishman to sing praises of this great Victorian institution that seems to have had its day in London
Now you mention it, this first search ‘hit’ on my revisiting, is a US site. I was more concerned with the sentiments and affirmations of the quotations. I think they are universal comments of benefit and appreciation.
Are you anti American for some reason?
Even if you do not appreciate Public Libraries many others do.