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IoW council's 'community libraries' questioned
26.09.11 | Benedicte Page
The Isle of Wight council has said five libraries originally scheduled for closure last June will become "community libraries" and will not be closed. But campaigners have branded plans to hand the libraries over to volunteers "a cut by any other name".
IOW council said libraries in Bembridge, Brighstone, East Cowes, Niton and Shanklin will be run from buildings leased by the council at preferential rates, with free access to the council's library book stock and with broadband technology. The new arrangements will save around £500,000 a year, the council said.
Ian Anderson, the council's director for community wellbeing and social care, said: "We are delighted that residents will still be able to access local libraries across the island, but at a lesser cost to the council taxpayers. These new libraries will be able to represent their local communities and will offer residents opportunities to use the sites in
exciting new ways." Anderson praised the "tremendous enthusiasm and dedication" displayed by communities across the island.
However local cuts campaigner Mike Starke said: "My personal view is that if the libraries are to be staffed with volunteers, it's a cut by any other name. There are many other things that the council could cut, such as exorbitant wages for senior officials and consultants, long before anyone thinks of cutting vital services like libraries."
Starke added that it "seems to be the most vulnerable people who are suffering", and pointed to the irony of handing Niton library over to volunteers, when it was just "a stone's throw" from the burial place of Edward Edwards, a 19th-century pioneer of the public library service.
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On 24th September a BBC News item on the same subject with the headline 'Volunteers step in to run Isle of Wight libraries' quoted only Ian Anderson, of Isle of Wight Council. In it Mr Anderson said: "It would not have been possible were it not for the tremendous enthusiasm and dedication displayed by communities across the island." The BBC did not mention the existence of any dissent or any alternative view, so readers would have been thoroughly been misled : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-15047855
In contrast, here, that is not the case. Thank you.
The Isle of Wight needs to know about Lewisham. The similarities are noteworthy.
Lewisham closed 5 of its libraries in May this year, transferring the leases of 3 of them to a "Social Enterprise" company at peppercorn rents. The results may be visited. There has been a severe diminution of the service. Therefore both Lewisham council and Ed Vaizey MP are in contravention of the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act.
We now have a two-tier service. Those who live near a "Hub" library get far more for their taxes than those who don't. Another contravention of the 1964 Act.
A fourth library was handed over to a Charity - with a fat £200k boost to 'make it so' as the Chairty in question has raised £0.5m to refurbish its premises. The end of this project will provide 7,000 books (down from the 21,000 of the locality's closed library). The spokesman for the charity at an initial consultation meeting made it clear 80 volunteers would be needed to run the project. The fifth library was closed full stop. It is now run by a small group of desperate community members fighting to keep a library presence for the locality.
All this was explained to the BBC on Friday when they called me. My views, not favouring their titled view "Breathing New Life Into Lewisham's Threatened Libraries" were never aired - just like the Isle of Wight coverage. Is there a conspiracy here?
Peter Richardson
Despite the fact that I have had to take a break from campaining for the IW Libraries, I am still involved. The situation is not as described by the IW Council. In East Cowes the existing premises are NOT being leased to the community library beyond the end of December 2011 as the council claim the building unfit for purpose and unsafe for public use. The community group in East Cowes is in fact the Town Council who have, in the current year, taken £15,000 in extra precept to fund the community library, the only problems are a) from 1st Jan 2012 they do not own a suitable premises from which to operate.
and b) If the notice in the present library means what it says, they have insufficient volunteers to run it anyway!
As far as the building is concerned, I understand from members of the business community in the town, that it has already been surveyed and valued by several prospective purchasers, so presumably plans are already in hand for its disposal, and because of its "condition" we expect it to be another knock-down bargain like the Ventnor Winter Gardens sale!
There seems to be no end of money available to 'community groups' to take over the running of libraries in my area. Which begs the question - why not just give it to us to run the libraries in the first place and save everyone a lot of hassle?
It's almost as if someone sat somewhere and thought up the most inefficient, pointless and unsustainable way to run a library service and went with it. At least doing this will help to finally destroy the public library service once and for all...
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