A campaigner who put the case to councillors to save Westdene Library has described the closure proposals as “short-sighted”.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet is due to discuss closing the library in Bankside as well as Hollingbury Library, and cutting hours at the main Hove and Jubilee libraries.
A report released ahead of the cabinet meeting on Thursday 11 December, says council officers will work “with partners” on exploring alternative options for a future community-based service. However, Rottingdean Library is no longer threatened with closure.
The council is trying to save £250,000 from its annual £3.7 million libraries budget over two years.
Westdene campaigner Alicia Buckingham, was one of two people who spoke at the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee in November, urging the council to keep the library open.
The committee recommended that cabinet should not continue with the libraries closure plan and reduced hours, and if any closure did occur, that the site be “mothballed” for potential future use.
Mrs Buckingham said: “This school-linked library is the heartbeat of our small community, and losing it would hit us hard, removing one of the few truly accessible public spaces we have left.
“Targeting Westdene Library for closure is a short-sighted decision that fails to recognise its essential value and undervalues the role it plays to the school and locals – its closure must be taken off the table.
“Yes, they’ve mentioned the community model to us again and again. In fact, it seemed to represent the only option they were ever considering for Westdene throughout the consultation.
“It doesn’t matter that we’ve explained to them that this isn’t a realistic or sustainable option for what is really a small community where the library is mainly used by young children – but of course, we all know working parents of young children have ample volunteer time to offer!
“It’s obvious to us that footfall numbers alone don’t capture the real value of Westdene Library to our community.
“The report claims low deprivation and high car ownership to justify closure, but obviously being in the same ward as Hove Park makes those figures look very nice for them.
“They’ve ignored everything we’ve said about Patcham not being a realistic alternative: there are no direct transport links, and residents would face steep hills and busy roads to cross.”
During her presentation to the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee Mrs Buckingham pointed out that Westdene Library is open one day a week and does not hold events, unlike other community libraries.
Council data showed there were 10,000 visits annually, with 6,000 items borrowed, of which children’s fiction loans were four times higher than adult lending.
Conservative councillor for Westdene and Hove Park, Ivan Lyons has described the recommendation as disappointing.
Councillor Lyons said: “It’s really disappointing news but the Labour administration have not listened to residents, the school or library users and are recommending our library to close next spring.
“I have asked the cabinet as to whether they would consider deferring closure if some of the £90,000 community infrastructure levy funds designated within our ward could be used to meet the £20,000 per year shortfall, pending a more permanent financial footing funding mechanism.”
The closure is one of two proposed in the cabinet papers following a 12-week public consultation.
There were 2,711 completed responses made to the survey on the council website, although the report to cabinet states people could make multiple responses.
The council received 164 emails to the consultation email address, received one formal member enquiry and 374 people attended nine public consultation meetings, online and in person.
Westdene library users formed 16 per cent of responders to the survey, a total of 441.
In response to the question, how much do you agree or disagree with the proposal to close Westdene Library, of the 2,420 responders, 70 per cent either strongly disagreed or tended to disagree with the proposal.
Those who completed the free text, just under a fifth of responders, raised concerns about the impact on children at the neighbouring school, the effect of the loss of a community hub on the elderly and disabled, and the distance and lack of transport to Patcham Library.
Alternatives put forward was to reduce hours at larger libraries, reintroducing the mobile library, raising council tax, fundraising and partnering with the school and other local organisations.
ENDS
Video from overview and scrutiny committee
Higher resolution also available https://f.io/aMRk339I
Another of the local Labour Party’s manifesto promises broken. There was zero mention of library closures, to the point where it was implied that they would set up more library like spaces as community hubs. In 2023, the councillors now closing libraries stood for election on a manifesto which said:
“we will look for ways to set up community hubs – warm, safe spaces – all over the city. Our libraries, which already provide information about council and community services, along with many underused rooms and halls and churches in our neighbourhoods, can be developed into places where people can meet, find information and advice, share activities”
The 2023 manifesto seems to have disappeared from where is was on the local Labour Party’s website, presumably so people can easily look back and see all of the broken promises and failure to deliver what they said.
Throughout the 2023 manifesto B&H Labour talk about “listening Labour”, so if they ignore the outcome of the consultation, which overwhelmingly opposed closures, and go along with the actions in the report going to council, that will be another promise broken to. Ignoring the outcome of public consultations in no way can be seen to be ‘listening’, and we will have more evidence that a Labour administration would ‘listen’ was a lie too if they plough ahead with library closure.
Councillor Robins is a strange choice as Cabinet Minister for Libraries as he’s not known for being a big reader. Ditto sport. He’s not known for being a sportsman either.
I’m still keen on a community model, BUT, I want to be clear, because I’ve seen this a few times – that does not mean it has to be volunteer-only. CICs can have a paid member of staff, be asset locked, and be charitable.
You seem to be forgetting it is a statutory duty for councils to provide Libraries. It also saves councils much more money than it costs to do so in social benefits, particularly in the savings on mental welfare and anti social behaviour budgets. Get kids reading and going to Library storytelling sessions from an early age and they are far less likely to go off the rails when get older becuase they will be literate and properly able to express themselves. I thought this Council were supposed to be a supporter of the Stronger Starts campaign.
Fair challenge, I am aware of that, but that duty can – and has been legally tested – be delivered through an aligned CIC. Councils get quite a broad discretion. The statutory duty is about the service, not council ownership or direct operation, if that makes sense?
And I completely agree with what you say about the benefits, and to add to that, research is pretty clear that charitable entities are more efficient at delivering it. So if the council decides to go in that direction, I think it would be supporting exactly what you say.