Croydon shy to consult on its libraries

Croydon, the council that professes efficiency embedded in its DNA, has been caught out again for the shambolic handling of another library consultation. The council not only omitted to advertise the consultation on Upper Norwood Joint Library, it actively promoted it on the council website as not yet open for consultation. 

All this, despite the consultation actually being open.


The original Croydon consultation on six libraries was similarly shambolic but, like Upper Norwood Library users, the community jumped into action to spread the word. 

• Residents raised the alarm when the consultation documents did not arrive in libraries.  
• They then raised the alarm when the consultation documents ran out only days after they became available. 
• They objected when the next batch of documents were so poorly printed they were barely legible, certainly unsuitable for anyone with visual impairment of any kind.
• Residents even resorted to photocopying consultation documents at their own expense to keep them available to those wishing to respond.
• They continued to demand that the promised children's consultation document be released. It was, but very late in the process, meaning many were unaware and unable to respond.
• Residents also repeatedly corrected MPs, councillors and, in particular, Sara Bashford, the cabinet member responsible for the exercise, when libraries were referred to as partly or completely discretionary,
• And spoke up in numbers when Croydon embarked on an outsourcing exercise involving the whole network of Croydon libraries (not just the six that were the subject of the consultation), denying residents and library campaigners the details of the 412 responses that the council claimed informed this decision.

Having given every assistance to the council in the original consultation on six of its libraries by flagging up where things went wrong, library campaigners stood back to observe the Upper Norwood Library consultation. checking daily to see when the details of the consultation being open would be released.

Despite finally losing our nerve and posting the details of the misinformation on this blog it took Croydon a further week to correct the information on their website.

That's less than a fortnight before the consultation ends and over a bank holiday weekend when the furthest thing from people's minds in checking the council website.

You can find full and correct details here:

 http://www.croydon.gov.uk/democracy/consultations/upper-norwood-library-provision/

And the worst thing about this?

Upper Norwood Library campaigners had already alerted Croydon Council when they had prematurely advertised the library consultation as being open before the opening date, sending residents on a wild goose chase for the consultation documents. They corrected the information on the council website but failed to revise the entry when the consultation did actually open.

Given that the consultation meeting has now been rescheduled for the evening of Wednesday, 16th May it allows residents, still unaware, the window of just a few days to grab a consultation document and respond by the deadline of Sunday, 20th May. 

Might have been useful to have added details of the consultation deadline. Just saying!

If you care about Upper Norwood Library please make sure you attend the meeting and make sure you respond to the consultation.  My advice would also be to keep a record of your response to help campaigners to represent your views.  Croydon seem very reticent to share!

The irony of Croydon producing a poster to promote the meeting of the 16th, that includes the wording,

"Your chance to learn more about library proposals for library services in the area" 

just days before the close of the consultation, may be lost on the council but not on the residents who stand to lose their valued, much-loved and much-used library service.

No wonder Inside Croydon likened dealing with Croydon Council and its political leadership to dealing with someone with all the maturity of a petulant toddler, with their fingers firmly planted in their ears.

Yeh but, no but. What consultation?
Statutory.... you what?

The fate of Croydon's central network of thirteen libraries may well be sealed but you have a real chance to speak up for the jointly run Upper Norwood library. Don't miss your chance!

More details at http://www.unlc.org.uk/
Twitter: @saveunlibrary https://twitter.com/#!/search/saveunlibrary
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/269577509754920/

And, of course, the main Croydon libraries campaign group:
blog :http://soslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/
Website: http://www.savesandersteadlibrary.co.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SaveCroydonLibs
https://twitter.com/#!/search/savesanderstead
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/savecroydonlibraries/

Library Consultation, Croydon-style

Croydon residents deserve better, surely, or do Croydon Council REALLY think that residents are not worthy of consultation or plainly just won't notice?

Croydon were heavily criticised for the poor consultation on six of its libraries last year.

Residents were misled. At least one MP and many councillors, including the Cabinet member responsible, Cllr Sara Bashford, openly declared that libraries were a discretionary service and non statutory, clearly overlooking the 1964 Act.  This ongoing saga is documented on Inside Croydon and Save Croydon Libraries Campaign.

Residents were put under pressure to volunteer from the outset of the consultation by eager Conservative councillors across the borough and one MP at least who couldn't wait to sign people up, feeding on the huge value residents placed on their local library. Despite this, the Summer Booktrail, only months later, faltered and struggled when Croydon attempted to run it, staffed by volunteers.

Residents were subjected to a shoddy consultation.  Libraries ran out of consultation documents on numerous occasions, the children's consultation document was released only weeks before the close of the consultation and some residents handing the consultation document out were criticised by councillors and cabinet members for trying to advertise it. The documentation itself was flawed, leading to some questions being disregarded when the results were analysed. Anyone would think Croydon, the listening council, really wasn't so keen to hear what residents had to say.

Despite this, Croydon forged ahead with their plans to outsource all 13 libraries, on the basis of the views of the users of just six of their libraries. I wonder what the users of other libraries think?  Clearly Croydon think it matters not a jot!

Given the judicial reviews, criticising local authorities handling of consultation processes (Gloucestershire and Somerset, then Brent, followed by Surrey and now Doncaster) wouldn't you think Croydon would take the time to at least tick the "has consulted" box?

It seems not! Just look at the latest turn of events...

Having withdrawn funding from Upper Norwood Joint Library, which Croydon has run with neighbouring Lambeth Council, they set about a consultation process on its future. Whilst Lambeth have consulted, have Croydon? Residents had to point out the error when Croydon announced that a consultation had started before any consultation papers were available. A mishap, perhaps. But this does not answer why Croydon, to this day, are advertising a consultation is soon to start, particularly when the consultation is soon to close. There is a Public Meeting on the evening of Thursday 16th May and completed consultation documents need to be returned by the deadline of Sunday 20th May. Will they ever learn?

The post on the council's official website:

And, just in case you missed the relevant part, here it is, in all its glory - Consultation, Croydon-style.  Does this indicate to you that the consultation has started?

See it for yourself at http://www.croydon.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/croydonlibs/unorwoodlib before someone hastily corrects it after weeks of it being in place, with not a soul at the council noticing. Croydon, the listening council,  Proud to Serve, indeed....apparently.

Will Croydon ever learn from their mistakes?  I'll leave that up to you to judge for yourself. But ask me if Croydon Library supporters and campaigners are united to #savelibraries in Croydon and I can be much more assured in my answer. We are, and we don't intend to give up!

Full details can be found here http://www.unlc.org.uk/home/urgent-action/

URGENT! Surrey Library Campaigners need our help

 The following has been received by email and I am passing it on. Please spread the word via facebook, twitter, word of mouth and consider donating yourself.  

If we all make a contribution, even just a pound or two, think about that collectively.... what a huge difference this could make! 

We thank you for all donations so far, you've been great. BUT we still need MORE !!!!!!!!

Dear all, 

The Judicial Review is upon us, and is taking place on 19th & 20th March in the High Court, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

• Court Number 19, 10:30 each day

• You are able to enter and leave as you wish.

Please come and hear what is going on, the more the merrier.
We still need to raise funds towards the Community Contribution of £18,000.
Please pass this message on to all your own contacts.

Information on the case:The Counsels for the case are as follows:

 For the claimant:


Helen Mountfield QC - Matrix Chambers http://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/Members/26/Helen%20Mountfield.aspx


supported by Rachel Logan - Matrix chambers http://www.matrixlaw.co.uk/Members/93/Rachel%20Logan.aspx

 For SCC:


Elisabeth Laing QC - 11 King's Bench Walk Chambers http://www.11kbw.com/barristers/detail.php?bid=15


supported by Patrick Halliday - 11 King's Bench Walk Chambers http://www.11kbw.com/barristers/detail.php?bid=48

We expect the case to last the best part of 2 days. We expect the Counsel for the Claimant to present for the whole of the first morning and for a good chunk of the afternoon, and we expect then Counsel for SCC to be on her feet for the remainder of the afternoon and on second morning. We expect the Judge to sum up and conclude on Tuesday afternoon.

Lobby of ParliamentOn 13^th March, SLAM campaigners joined the rally at Central Hall, Westminster and the lobby at Parliament.  There were great speakers such as Alan Gibbons (Campaign for the Book), authors Kate Mosse, Philip Ardagh, and Ian Anstice (Voices for the Library and Librarian).  Also there was music provided by ‘Doyle and the fourfathers’ with ‘Welcome to austerity’ and ‘One man and his beard’ with ‘The library song’.  Running a stall gave us the opportunity to explain what has been going on in Surrey.  We met other campaigners from Brent, Croydon and Somerset, as well as individual campaigners and MPs (see the blog).
For more information see http://www.speakupforlibraries.org/
The library community has always in the past, had a spirit of sharing knowledge and resources.  The system of Inter Library Loans is based on this. Each sector should have some concern for professionals in each sphere.  It has been a difficult time for public library staff because their jobs are under threat.  Changing to fully volunteer run libraries has meant that jobs have had to move, and reductions in staffing due to retirement has occurred, as well as some redundancies.  Staff in public libraries should support SLAM because we want to keep these libraries open and keep paid, trained staff in them, but working more with volunteers.  Library staff in all sectors should support each other.

The speakers were enthusiastic and passionate about the great resource the UK has in public libraries, available to all, giving knowledge and opportunity to all. By doing nothing Ed Vaizey is handing the situation over to councils.  By setting up Community Partnership Libraries, the councils are handing over responsibility to neighbourhoods.  If these fail, it won’t be the council or government taking the blame!
Help SLAM to help libraries in Surrey. 

 Donations


You can pay by direct transfer as follows:


Lloyds TSB / Account: SLAM / A/c No. 48371668 / Sort code:30-99-80 along with an email to: slamtreasurer12@gmail.com with your name, address, amount of donation so that we can return donations if we win!


Thanks for reading, please HELP!


Jenny Meineck
SLAM Secretary 

www.slamupdate.wordpress.com

And, by the way......

I'm also personally collecting donations to pass on, with agreement from the campaigners. Flavours Coffee Shop in Warlingham have a donation pot and SLAM flyers too. 

I hope to attend the Judicial Review on at least one day if not both.

Please help!

Speaking up for Libraries at Libraries Rally, March 13th

As a library campaigner I am proud to be a founding member of the Speak Up for Libraries coalition. The idea of this rally and lobby was born from an idea mooted by those attending a Library Campaigners Conference, which was organised by Voices for the Library and The Library Campaign, held in London last October, at which Philip Pullman spoke.

We have heard Ed Vaizey say this morning at the CMS libraries enquiry that he had the utmost respect for those campaigning for libraries.  Well, I have news for Mr Vaizey.  This belief is not always reflected by local authorities, such as my local authority Croydon, and I know we are not alone.

We so value libraries that communities across the country have been pressured to accept a lesser service or to volunteer to run libraries themselves in order to ‘save’ them. BUT we must not lose sight that what makes a library a library is what people value most - the expertise, care, guidance and advice offered by qualified and experienced staff who deal with the public, without agenda or prejudice, and who cater for the needs of the whole community.

If I have one message to give, it is the message from all library campaigners that came from the Library Campaigners' Conference back in October. It is essential that we see campaigning for libraries on a national level rather than the divide and conquer approach currently in place, fed by poorly constructed and leading consultations and short-sighted cuts by local authorities who are not really listening to the communities that they serve. 

An open door, a set of books, does not a library make.

We must press for the Secretary of State to use his power to ensure that statutory obligations are met. 


We must make local authorities sit up and take notice.

Campaigner Groups Supporting Libraries Lobby

So who is supporting the  Libraries Lobby on 13th March, organised by the Speak Up for Libraries coalition of organisations and campaigners?  Details of the background to the lobby are here and full details of the event, resources, and so on are here. 


It is hard to pick through the twitter feed, facebook messages and so on, so I thought it would be useful to produce a list of campaign groups attending.  Add your details to the list below or email your details to soslibrary@hotmail.co.uk


Please don't forget to complete the sign up on the Speak Up for Libraries site too.  You can find it as http://www.speakupforlibraries.org/signup.asp

We are Speaking Up for Libraries on March 13th:

Save Sanderstead Library - @SaveSanderstead
Save Croydon Libraries Campaign -  @SaveCroydonLibs
Surrey Libraries Action Movement  - @Surrey_SLAM
Upper Norwood Library Campaign - www.unlc.org.uk/
Suffolk Library Campaigners

Pat and Peter Richardson, The Users & Friends of Manor House Library (Lewisham, London SE13)  

Save Kensal Rise Library @SaveKRLibrary  www.savekensalriselibrary.org
We Heart Libraries a group for everyone who loves libraries in North Herts and Stevenage - @WHLibraries  - http://www.weheartlibraries.org.uk/
Save Friern Barnet Library Group - @SaveFriernBtLib - www.tinyurl.com/savefbliby - http://www.facebook.com/SaveFriernBarnetLiby  

We Unite to Speak Up for Libraries

The Speak Up for Libraries coalition grew from an idea that arose from the  Library Campaigners Conference, organised by Voices for the Library and The Library Campaign, which was held in London late October 2011. The idea of a rally and lobby of Parliament was put forward by a library campaigner attending and it was met with resounding support from all those present, including Philip Pullman, who attended and spoke on the day.

The concluding message Philip Pullman delivered in his speech was, 

"I salute everyone who's come here today, everyone who's protesting and demonstrating to save this library or that one, everyone who's devising a way of preserving one of the greatest and the best gifts any society has ever given its seekers after truth, its children, its old people, everyone who is looking for help better to enjoy life or better to endure it; there's nothing more valuable in the war on stupidity than the public library. These are hard times, but you are each guarding a beacon, and based on what I've heard today, I have every confidence that you won't let that beacon go out."

You can read the full transcript of Philip Pullman's speech here. 

The strongest message coming from the conference was that we needed unified action, the need for library campaigners to work collectively and to push for the Secretary of State to intervene. March 13th is our opportunity to speak up for libraries. 


Find out more about the rally and lobby being held on March 13th on the Speak Up for Libraries website at www.speakupforlibraries.org 


You can also follow on twitter at @SpeakUp4Libs. The official hashtag for the March 13th event is #librarieslobby

Surrey Libraries Campaigners need our help!

A Judicial Review is due to take place on 19th and 20th of March, 2012 and Surrey Library Campaigners need our help! Find the full details here. 

The Legal Services Commission has granted the claimants legal aid but, due to the LSC having decided that the case is in the broad public interest and that a very large number of people stand to gain should the claim succeed, the LSC have insisted that the community makes a contribution to the legal costs in the region of £18,000.

Due to the High Court acting so quickly over the issue, Surrey Libraries Action Movement have very little time in which to raise the “Community Contribution” – just a few weeks!

 Can you help?

 Spread news of the campaign and the need for a 'fighting fund' 

Make a contribution to the cause:

Full details can be found here:

http://slamupdate.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/an-appeal-on-behalf-of-libraries-and-librarians/