Greetings All,
The Save Ealing Libraries campaign is gathering momentum again, but there is much more work to be done. The council is to consult its residents in February over its brutal proposal to slash its funding for its 13 Libraries.
Below Unison spells out clearly the implications of Ealing Council’s savage cuts to the Library service and urge “all residents of Ealing and whatever local groups you may belong to contact your local councillors and Members of Parliament and register your profound disapproval.
Please read below Unison’s full response, circulate widely. We need to fill up the Consultation Meeting. Unity is Strength!
“On Tuesday 15th January at an Ealing Council Cabinet meeting Ealing Council formally launched their proposals for savage cuts to the Library service in Ealing. This will result in just six libraries being directly managed by the Council. The remaining seven libraries will be run by an, as yet unnamed, community volunteer organisation or will be offered to the local communities to run and staff their local libraries with volunteers. In the event that no community groups come forward the libraries will be closed permanently. Some of the libraries will be relocated to alternative sites which will inevitably lead to former library sites being sold off to the highest bidder. The treasured Home Library Service which provides an invaluable service to the sick and housebound will also be offered as a commissioned service through the voluntary sector. Library opening hours will also be cut. Further information is available on local websites: http://www.ealingtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&link=http://neighbournet.com/server/common/ealibrarycuts001.htm
The rationale given for these cuts is the reduction in grants from Central Government, while this is inevitably true it does not justify the barbaric nature of the cuts being imposed on libraries in Ealing. The people of Ealing did not elect a Labour council to carry out the Conservative Government’s austerity agenda with such apparent relish while hiding behind the all too convenient excuse that there is no alternative. Where have we heard that before? It is ironic that a Council that has rightly been vociferous in its opposition to NHS proposals for Ealing Hospital should adopt the same rhetoric to justify cuts in valued services for which it is directly responsible.
Ealing Libraries were privatised in 2013 to John Laing in 2013. John Laing were then subject to a share buyout by the now infamous and reviled outsourcing company Carillion. Carillion continued to run the Library contract in Ealing until they went bust in January 2018. After some prevarication, with no alternative provider coming forward and the outsourcing model thoroughly discredited, Ealing Council reluctantly decided to take the Library Service back “in house”.
Prior to Carillion’s liquidation the Council announced in a Cabinet report in January 2018 that it’s preferred option was for Carillion to continue running the Library contract in Ealing and retaining all thirteen libraries :
The cost of running the Library Service in 2013 is given as £5.974M. In the Cabinet Report for January 15th 2019 the opening budget figure for the Library Service is given as £ 2.194 M.
That indicates that since privatisation and two restructures the Library Service budget and spend has reduced by £3.78 million. Why are the Council coming back for more? Hasn’t the Library Service already been cut to the marrow bone. There have been many academic studies that indicate that for every pound spent on libraries the benefits to local communities pay that sum back tenfold in so many different ways. Contrary to what we are being told by Ealing council, not everything can be measured in pounds, shillings and pence: http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/reasons-for/reasons-for-libraries-values-for-money
In addition to the brutal impact these proposed cuts will have on the fabric of our local communities there will also be devastating implications for library staff and their families. Many library staff, with decades of loyal service to their communities and to the council, will be consigned to the scrap heap, sacrificed on the altar of austerity.
All this at a time when London has the highest child poverty figures in the country and literacy levels are in decline. Parents are finding it difficult to manage with wages flat-lining and living costs rising. Many in our communities are in precarious employment. Many othersneed libraries to access local and government services that are vital to their well-being. Is this the time to implement these cuts?
Unison is fundamentally opposed to these proposals and we would ask all residents of Ealing and whatever local groups you may belong to contact your local councillors and Members of Parliament and register your profound disapproval. Please participate in the consultation regarding these proposals that will be commencing in February. Help us fight for libraries, library workers jobs and our communities. Join in our campaign. Together we can win.”
UNISON