With just 116 signatures the petition could reach the chunky figure of 1500 if you are able to get others to sign and share it would be much appreciated. If you are attending local general election hustings please raise the funding issue of our library which ever of our 5 boroughs you live in. Norwood and Dulwich Election Question time is happening on Weds 29th Apr 7pm at the Portico Gallery 23a Knights Hill SE27. This event is sponsored by The Norwood Forum. All prospective MP candidates for Dulwich and West Norwood have been invited. If you have a question that you would like to ask then please send to info@norwoodforum.org to make sure your question gets heard. So far 6 ppc have confirmed their attendance Rashid Nix, Green Party, Helen Hayes, Labour, Resham Kotchea, Conservative, James Barber, Liberal Democrats, Steve Nally, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, Rathy Alagaratnam UK Independance Party. Do you live in Croydon? A chance to question Croydon North MP Steve Reed, and those standing as candidates in the forthcoming election. The Croydon North hustings, chaired by the Croydon Guardian, takes place at Praise House (London Rd) at 7pm on Weds 29 April. I enclose the submission on behalf of the Upper Norwood Library Campaign which was sent to Lambeth Council as part of the 2020 Library Consultation. Submission To 'Cultural Services by 2020' Consultation From Upper Norwood Library Campaign (UNLC) Dear Councillor Jane Edbrooke, We hereby respond to Lambeth Council's consultation paper 'Cultural Services by 2020'. The Upper Norwood Library Campaign welcomes the opportunity to contribute to this consultation process. Our library founded by Lambeth and Croydon visionaries 115 years ago is unique in its status and is talismanic to our community. Crystal Palace is a uniquely challenging location on the edge of five boroughs but 115 years ago Croydon and Lambeth could see the solution. For 100 years both councils have delivered a co-funded service which serves residents of all five boroughs but predominantly Croydon and Lambeth. Both parties that are currently in control of both councils made public commitments to defend that co-funding structure and recognised that a service that was professionally staffed was very important to local residents The densities of Croydon and Lambeth boroughs are increasing in this area. Lambeth is looking for a three form entry school in Gipsy Hill and is consulting on a major regeneration of Central Hill so it would seem that joined up thinking would suggest that community infrastructure which has already been hammered by cuts should be supported and enhanced. Consultation after consultation, public meeting after public meeting the local community has forcefully and effectively told politicians that they want a properly funded professionally staffed library. The Upper Norwood Library stands firmly in solidarity with the Friends of Lambeth Libraries (FoLL) and endorses its submission that the current proposals for a Lambeth Library Service is just not fit for purpose. The Upper Norwood Library Campaign would respectfully submit that this year has seen a tremendous improvement in the offering of Lambeth Libraries across the borough and it seems particularly perverse to dismember the service just when has been making a dramatic recovery. Given that such a major investment has been committed to libraries in terms of resource and building works over the past couple of years the current thinking seems to have been something of a disjunction. The Campaign is fully aware that cost saving have to be found but the Campaign would proffer the alternative approach by our neighbouring borough of Southwark which has protected all its libraries and found savings elsewhere. The Campaign is particularly disappointed that the current proposals appear to fly in the face of innovative community support which has been the hallmark of Lambeth Council in recent years. There was a previous recognition by officers and councillors that libraries could be great platforms to deliver additional services to the community and work with additional third sector groups to support this, while still providing a statutory provision of evolving library services. These proposals create a deeply unjust postcode lottery library service which is not, we would suggest the Lambeth way. The Upper Norwood Campaign is particularly disappointed that, the passionate community support for the Upper Norwood Library has been so disregarded. It seems an abrupt about face given Lambeth has previously acted so robustly in defence of the library. Time and again the community has stepped up to the plate to support the staff who have faced so many uncertainties and savage cuts already. Yet instead of a reversal of these cuts or even just a period of stability, once again Upper Norwood is singled out for more cuts. This is despite the library being already recognised, as the most cost efficient in both boroughs, and for already generating more revenue from sales than any other equivalent Lambeth library. The Upper Norwood Library Trust has worked incredibly hard and has already delivered some major benefits for the library but the current proposed funding structure makes their efforts so much more difficult. This moves the model from a library to a community centre with books staffed by volunteers. This model has been profoundly rejected by the community of Crystal Palace time and again. For the Trust to be endorsed by the community they must be properly supported with levels of funding suggested in their previously carefully costed budgets which appear to have been totally disregarded. Current figures put forward seem to have no justification in reasoning and certainly don’t match the aspirations of the community. While the endowment appears to show elements of innovative thinking the devil is in the detail. How is the pie divided? Who can claim? How much can each library claim? When would this cash be allocated and for how long? The endowment will provide no level of confidence to outside funders. It also seems profoundly unfair and sets up libraries to compete against each other. The Upper Norwood Library is a town centre library for the community of Crystal Palace it should provide a statutory provision of library services to the area. It is legally legitimate to argue that removal of its designation of an independent library authority is unlawful and the Upper Norwood Library Campaign has had intimations that Lambeth Council had taken legal counsel that supported that opinion. The Upper Norwood Library Campaign has scheduled meetings with a barrister and will pursue this legal avenue if necessary. The Upper Norwood Library Campaign is calling on both councils to sit down and renegotiate a deal that is much more acceptable to local residents and which will allow the Trust to flourish. This future deal needs to recognise that the library should still deliver a statutory provision of service to the area, and be fairly funded in a manner which will enable it to deliver a professionally staffed level of service that is equivalent to similar town centre libraries in Croydon and Lambeth. The Upper Norwood Library Campaign has issued a joint statement with former Lambeth leader and Croydon North MP Steve Reed. This statement has also been supported by the perspective Dulwich & West Norwood MP Helen Hayes. It is also supported by a number of other local councillors and candidates and GLA members active in the area including Steve O’Connell (Conservative) and Darren Johnson (Green). Further political lobbying is ongoing and will intensify after the election. To canvas further support for the statement which is submitted below the Campaign in just the last 5 days of the Consultation raised a petition of more than 1300 signatures from across the local community. The Campaign has received particularly strong support from the Crystal Palace Mums group, from Central Hill residents and the Gipsy Hill Residents Association. https://www.change.org/p/lambeth-and-croydon-councils-properly-fund-our-library-as-a-statutory-town-centre-library-for-crystal-palace The joint Upper Norwood Library Campaign and Steve Reed MP statement to the consultation and to the leadership of both Croydon and Lambeth Council is as follows: “The joint funding of the Upper Norwood Library by both Lambeth and Croydon for more than 100 years is a model of cross-borough co-operation that benefits the entire community of Crystal Palace. Residents in Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood have consistently made clear their support for a properly funded, professionally staffed library in public consultations held by both councils. We want to see the Upper Norwood Joint Library receive at least the same funding per head of population as equivalent town centre libraries in Croydon and Lambeth, and Croydon to meet their commitment to fully match all funding from Lambeth including the endowment fund. Lambeth and Croydon should both continue to recognise the unique status of this library and its role in providing statutory library services for the community it serves across several borough boundaries. We support the community trust that has been formed to take control of the library and help raise much-needed additional funds to support and enhance its professionally staffed library service. We look forward to working with both councils, the Trust and the community to find a way forward that is fair to the entire community of Upper Norwood and Crystal Palace and which guarantees the long-term stable future which the library so desperately needs and the community wants to see”. https://www.change.org/p/lambeth-and-croydon-councils-properly-fund-our-library-as-a-statutory-town-centre-library-for-crystal-palace The complete petition and comments will also be submitted on behalf of the UNLC.