Dear Supporters
On the 8th March, Alan Wylie, a library worker, campaigner & Unison member who I have the greatest respect for wrote a detailed letter to Councillor Johnson and Councillor Anand, highlighting with strong evidence and data, why the Council’s proposal to hand 7 of Ealing’s libraries is potentially catastrophic/‘devastating’ to volunteers. Please bear in mind his letter was sent before the first of the public consultations (Monday 11 March-Greenford Town Hall, Tuesday 12 March Northfields Library-Kingsdown Methodist Church & 13 March Hanwell Library - Hanwell Community Centre)
But it’s clear from Councillor Johnson’s curt and seemingly dismissive response to Alan’s email, they are not sympathetic. The Consultation Meeting I went to in Hanwell made a nonsense of the meaning of ‘consultation’. Below I will refer to the summary of one resident present at these ‘Consultation Meetings’ but first, please read Alan’s excellent letter and Councillor Johnson’s 'response'.
Sent: 08 March 2019 13:05
Subject: Proposals for Ealing Libraries
“Dear Cllr Anand & Johnson,
My name is Alan Wylie. I’m a library worker, campaigner and Unison member.
I’m writing to you to urge you to reconsider your potentially devastating proposals to hand over 7 of your libraries to volunteers.
I’m fully aware of the damage that’s been done to local authority budgets as a result of the governments ideological Austerity agenda but I truly believe that volunteer-run libraries are not the route that Ealing Library Services should take, for the following reasons:
§ Volunteer-run libraries are unsustainable and will result in the decline and inevitable closure of branches;
§ It is unfair to force people to provide a service they are already paying for;
§ The introduction of a two-tier system is against the principles of universal public library services;
§ Volunteer-run libraries will not have trained and qualified staff providing the service, which is far more complex than some would have people believe
§ There are questions as to the accountability of volunteers and whether or not they would be required to abide by council rules, legislation or the code of ethics that librarians are required to.
Recently library users and campaigners in Barnet highlighted the devastation that handing libraries to volunteers and the introduction of staffless opening has inflicted on their service;
“East Barnet Library lost 85 per cent of its visitors since becoming a volunteer “partnership” library and reducing its opening to 15 hours a week.
Meanwhile, Golders Green and North Finchley libraries, which have pin-code restricted access for under-15s and lost their children’s rooms, lost 66 per cent and 51 per cent of their visitors respectively.”
Library users and campaigners in Sheffield and Doncaster have also highlighted a huge decrease in usage in their volunteer-led ‘libraries’;
“FOI data re Doncaster & Sheffield Libraries:
- Huge fall in book loans and other use at Doncaster libraries transferred to volunteers.
- an increase of 50% in lost and stolen items in the year following the transfer of libraries to volunteers.
Book loan figures from Sheffield Libraries for 2014-2016 show a huge decrease in book loans and other usage since transfer to volunteers.
Book loan figures from Sheffield Libraries for 2017-2018 show a continuing decrease in book loans and other usage for 2017 and 2018.”
Also in Lewisham;
“Data obtained via FOI showing that stock issues have plummeted by nearly 50% in Lewisham Libraries between 2009/10 - 2015/16, point made that the Lewisham model isn’t sustainable.”
And in Warwickshire;
Library loans in Warwickshire down by 46% since 2011/12
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-33081298
“The number of loans has gone down at all 12 of Warwickshire's community libraries since they were formed following council cuts.
There were 112,832 loans in 2014/15 compared to 207,619 in 2011/12, a 46% fall.
Opening hours reduced at seven of the libraries after volunteers took over”
Also in Manchester;
Library visitor numbers plunge as cuts force drastic reduction in opening hours
'Community libraries' run by volunteers open much less than those run by the council
“Seven Manchester libraries have seen visitor numbers plummet by as much as 90per cent since funding cuts led to them being run by volunteers with drastically reduced opening hours.”
I believe that volunteers play an important part in assisting library staff in delivering specific library programmes when properly supported and trained, but that they are increasingly used as a substitute for paid and trained library staff. I believe that this is unacceptable for both library users and existing library staff. Under the pretext of funding cuts from central government, local communities are being forced into running their local library, with the threat of closure by the local authority if they fail to do so.
Job substitution and service fragmentation is creating a two-tier library service and a post-code lottery for the public, with poorer communities, who often do not have the time and resources to volunteer, receiving an inferior service to those in more affluent areas. The result of this is often no library service at all, or one that is little more than a book exchange. In my view this is neither ‘comprehensive or efficient’.
The role of ‘community libraries’ in my opinion is to further the government’s aims to shrink the state through its ‘Localism’ agenda. The role of ‘community libraries’ in delivering library services is, therefore, to undermine the statutory requirements of the 1964 Act and the principles of a comprehensive and efficient library service. Their purpose appears to be more ideological than practical in the long term, with the consequence being a two-tier, post-code lottery, library service casting adrift those in the poorest communities who rely on the many varied information services provided by appropriately funded public libraries, from claiming social security to improving literacy standards. The social and economic consequences of this division should not be underestimated.
I urge you to reconsider and look forward to your response.
Yours
Alan Wylie”
Response:
To: Alan Wylie
Subject: RE: Proposals for Ealing Libraries
“Dear Alan,
The public consultation will go on until May when any decisions will be made, I am all sorts of ideas will be discussed.
Regards
Cllr Yvonne Johnson”
Dear Supporters, this vague and curt response, if you can call it that, simply isn’t good enough!
I went to the Hanwell Public Meeting, and it left much to be desired. The mic kept switching on and off. Surely the Council could have provided a mic that didn’t disrupt public discourse. Residents present opted to have a proper debate rather than allow Councillor Anand and Manny Monoharan (Manager) to control the agenda by doing ‘ice-breaker’ groupwork brainstorming exercises with paper & ‘post-sticks’.
One Ealing resident, library user and campaigner has made these observations:
“These consultations are not about "listening" in the sense of learning but "listening" for any available opportunity to make light of the points being made by our local community.
The generational prejudice that is all too evident in the way these "consultations" are being conducted and in the way that the councillors and council employees involved are only prepared to give the vaguest of assurances, backed up by deceptive and selective statistics, and the most slippery politicians' answers you are ever likely to hear.
They use these tactics whenever dealing with any of the direct questions that are put to them ... that is if they are prepared to answer them at all.
Several of us have already witnessed how the life-experience of women who have run local charities or small businesses for most of their lives are treated as if they were old-fashioned or simple-minded by the Council representatives in their slick, smug, micro-managed PowerPoint presentations.
Some of these incidents have been captured on video and illustrate the many ways in which the presenters make their contempt for concerned residents evident whenever they casually turn away when someone is asking them a pertinent and clear-cut question.
To see those on stage whispering amongst themselves in order to try and make the speaker feel ignored and unworthy to be taken seriously is an absolute disgrace.
This tends to only happen to those gentle souls who make the mistake of being far too soft-spoken and polite.
The only thing old-fashioned about them are their manners - not their opinions - but the downside of this is that they are regarded as politically weak and therefore easy to dismiss.
Is it any wonder that this leads to outrage?”
Yes supporters, there was plenty of rage at the Hanwell meeting which I attended. Those of you who will be directly affected by the Council’s proposal please be ready to mobilise and peacefully demonstrate. Details to follow in due course. Our children’s lives and various vulnerable groups are being placed at risk if these changes go ahead and the Council must be brought into account! (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/13/library-cuts-harm-young-peoples-mental-health-services-warns-lobby
One last thing, a colleague has pointed out that what Ealing Council plans to do is ‘lazy’ and ‘not based on evidence’: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-and-analysis-to-explore-the-service-effectiveness-and-sustainability-of-community-managed-libraries-in-england
As ever, thanks for your support.
Grace ��