Forum Topic

The alleged Library closures

Does anyone else think that the announcement by Hounslow Council that the Brentford Library especially and the others are under threat of closure could be a red herring?I mean who really thinks that Cllrs Cadbury and Harmer would allow this in their own back yard let alone Cllr Dennison a Syon councillor and Lead Member for Finance as this would be political suicide for themI predict that at the last minute we will see said councillors triumphantly proclaiming that they personally had saved Brentford Library and in doing so bury all the cuts they have to make due to the incompetence of the last Labour GovernmentOf course no one should be complacent and we all need to do our bit and not give Hounslow any encouragement to close them but I would think the long contract with Laings who ultimately run the service is pretty watertight and the penalties would outweigh any cuts/savings

Paul Fisher ● 5553d11 Comments

I certainly do not think that giving away also paying for the privelege with 25 years of our Council Tax Monies-Our Libraries to Liang(Approx.600-700K as well as refurbishment funding)and Fusion (1 Million Pounds per annum again as well as refurb)our Leisure Centres is in anyway a "Little Thing" we ignorant silly people who are not politicly motivated should have been asked also an explaination should have been forthcoming as to why this was happening. What possible advantage was it to us for this to have happened, no one but no one has come up with a plausible explaination.Whilst I do appreciate that the initial give away to IPC was approx 10 year's ago however all Councillor's whatever there political persuasion have the duty to do a damn good job for we the people of the community at all times, not act like little god's as if we do not matter. Importantly they must remember that is we who employ them not the other way round.

Dawn Hardy ● 5548d

Mr Connelly,Well put,however if these proposed cut's do go ahead, we will still have to pay Liang there Contractual Yearly Premium for a period of 25 year's will we not, therefore it is we the people who are doubly losing out yet again. We still have to pay for an amenity(our Libraries)that will not exist!

Dawn Hardy ● 5548d

Well, bully for them.

Vanessa Smith ● 5550d

"I would venture to suggest your worry that these may be a victim of the cuts has more to do with your ambitions in the next round of local elections than anything else"Vanessa, I do wish you were capable of thinking outside of this particular box from time to time.  I have spoken directly to some of the Isleworth ward councillors about my "ambitions" for the next local elections, inasfar as I have any, and they seem to understand entirely where I am coming from.

Phil Andrews ● 5551d

"the excuse for an ideological assault upon local democracy and community interaction by the local authority."I really do have great trouble with that assertion, why then do you think that members of the Labour party stand for election? Why do you insist on constantly saying that the Labour councillors are engaged in some sort of revenge on local people? Remember we all live in one borough and I just cannot for the life of me understand what you think Labour members think they will gain by declaring some sort of war on the very people who will decide whether or not to vote for them. You also forget that it was the Labour council that set up area committees so hardly can be accused of an "assault on local democracy" and of course provided you with a power base over the last four years. I would venture to suggest your worry that these may be a victim of the cuts has more to do with your ambitions in the next round of local elections than anything else.As I said before I think this 'power to the people' nonsense has a limited application, those in power will only cede what they can't be arsed with or what is pretty small and largely irrelevant to them, in many ways Cameron's 'Big Society' and your 'empowerment' are unworkable and impractical so have their limits. What you are doing is kidding people they really have more say than they do, Cameron's because he doesn't believe in public service and just wants to save money and you because you think your man of the people persona looks and sounds good and panders to the like-minded who bear a grudge against the Labour party for some obscure reason.  Apart from that we elect people to make decisions and take responsibility on our behalf, these decisions hopefully are informed by the general public's views and consultation in appropriate circumstances, you just cannot run a local authority by stopping to ask eveyone about every little thing, nothing would ever get done.

Vanessa Smith ● 5551d

Paul's suggestion that we could be being shocked into considering a worst-case scenario, in order that those whose task it is to make the cuts could later sell themselves as saviours by cutting less than has been threatened, is entirely possible.However there remains the danger that if not too many people kick up in protest even savings that were never intended to be realised could be pushed through in the belief that they can be carried off politically.  Thus the need to protest the proposed closures remains whether they are sincere or insincere.We need in my view to consider the threats to libraries, public halls and area committees holisitically.  The danger is that what is an ideological assault upon public services by the main party in central government will provide the excuse for an ideological assault upon local democracy and community interaction by the local authority.

Phil Andrews ● 5551d

There seems to be an element of setting things up to fail with a lot of this Government's thinking. One of the arguments for library closures - apart from the financial situation is that less people use them - this may be true in some areas but not all. Therefore if you have less access to libraries it's odds on even less people will use the ones that are left. Similarly with schools and the indecent haste that the government are showing regarding pushing the academy model, a huge mistake in my personal opinion, that we have to unfortunately thank some pillock in the previous Labour government for. The situation is that local education authorities have and are being cut to shreds thereby being in a position of not being able to provide as much support for schools, the less support the schools get the more attractive the promised (but dubious) promise of freedom from the LEA looks and the more schools will opt out of the LEA, the more schools that go the less reason to maintain an LEA - simples! It's Catch 22. As for the latest joke of not trusting GPs to order their own stocks of flu vaccine in future but then being willing to hand over £80bn to 'commission' health services I really must be missing the point - if GPs aren't trusted to do a fairly simple thing like order vaccine how on earth does anyone arrive at the conclusion that the whole health service will be O.K. with them? Madness.

Vanessa Smith ● 5551d

Much as I agrees with most of what you say, John ( particularly the last sentiment regarding not being in office) I must pick you up on one thing: it is not the lack of public transport links to Hounslow that makes the Town Centre less desirable a destination than Ealing - there are excellent bus services (237, 117, 235) which run with great frequency and for those further north the Picadilly Line - it is the crapulosity of the Town Centre itself. Only the Treaty Centre shows any class.The regeneration of the Town Centre aka Key Site One has been mismanaged for nearly two decades.

Jon Hardy ● 5551d

I would be very surprised if the contract with Laings did not have inbuilt clauses allowing for review of library services in the event of budget reductions.Personally, I would be opposed to the principle of library closures. However, I also consider totally cutting the Youth Services budget as unbelievable, even if it goes ahead. Nonetheless, we should remember that the budget projections for the next few years involve substantial year on year cuts, and major parts of the council budget - such as education - are not controlled by the authority. Fundamental changes seem unavoidable.Some people have suggested that all libraries should remain open on reduced hours and staffing. However, this would be unlikely to be the most efficient way to cut spending. This is because costs such as heating and lighting, buildings maintenance etc. will not fall in proportion, meaning the service cuts will be greater in proportion than the financial savings.If funding for libraries is to be reduced on a permanent basis a reduction in numbers of branches would leave the maximum amount of funds available to maintain hours and staffing elsewhere.The implications of the Eric Pickles argument that councils should cooperate across conventional borough boundaries to maximise savings suggests that Ealing and Hounslow should be considering the relationship between Ealing Central library, Northfields and Brentford. If I lived in Brentford I would regard Ealing as a more logical "central library" to visit than Hounslow, given public transport links.From the point of view of the elderly and young people who can access public transport for free, what is more important?* A library accessible by transport with long opening hours and a good stockor* Several libraries opened on a very limited basis with much smaller stocksThere is no easy answer.However, when government spending cuts require a huge reconsideration of local services provision, I fear we will all be forced to think outside the box. I am only glad I am not among the ranks of service butchers who have to make these hard decisions for next year.

John Connelly ● 5553d

Maybe Paul speaks from personal experience????

Vanessa Smith ● 5553d

This did cross my mind.

Neil Chippendale ● 5553d