Ridiculous system restricts studying in Croydon Central Library

The following letter appears in this week's Croydon Guardian. 

It's headed,

and goes on to details the experiences of a woman who was attempting to use the facilities of Croydon Central Library to study for her degree. The full letter is reproduced below:

At what is a crucial time of year for so many in Croydon, needing to use library facilities to study for end of year exams, GCSEs and A levels, it beggars belief that restrictions are being placed on those wishing to study in Croydon Central Library.

Is this just another sad consequence of handing our libraries over to a builder, Carillion?

What exactly is Croydon getting from this contact with Laing, now Carillion?

• New IT has been installed, although well overdue, but library users report ongoing problems

• Phone access to our libraries has been lost, now handled via a Call Centre, and restricted to 9am to 5pm weekdays, rather than direct access to each library any time it was open.

• An appalling lack of promotion of activities. Check out the latest news tab on Croydon Libraries - Just one item, posted September 2013, promotion Black History month activities in October 2013 - hardly latest news. National Libraries Day in February went by with hardly a murmur, World Book Day on March 6 was ignored, as exposed by the Croydon Advertiser. World Book Night, an annual celebration of reading and books which takes place on 23 April, was not heard of in Croydon. And has anyone in Croydon heard of Reading Activists and the various groups for youth running in Croydon under this scheme,  funded from The Reading Agency? 

Croydon Council, like all local authorities, have a duty under the 1964 Act to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all who wish to make use of it. 

None of this sits comfortably with this legal duty.

Campaigners fear for future of Croydon libraries uncertain after facilities outsourced | SW Londoner

Laing (JLIS) have taken over the running of Croydon Libraries, a story picked up here:

Campaigners fear for future of Croydon libraries uncertain after facilities outsourced | SW Londoner

Have you noticed a change?

Hopefully this will mean a refresh of IT facilities across the network, something that Croydon Council failed to do in recent years, leading to people frustrated when faced with PCs that crashed over and over again or banks of PCs lying idle and out of action in Croydon libraries.

There are still grumbles on Twitter that PCs are slow to load and not a comment about the wifi. As one Croydon resident quipped, Computer says no!

Hopefully it will mean proper promotion of libraries

Although @CroydonLibs has sprung into life on Twitter the advertising of events are late in the day, often tweeted the day of the event and sometimes at odds with the details being given out in Croydon Libraries.

Did anyone meet Floella Benjamin, for example?

She tweeted about her appearance at Croydon Library,

yet the publicity materials produce advertised her appearing at Croydon Council's Community Space, aka Bernard Weatherill House.

and

Find the full programme for Black History Month here.

Then there was confusion over an event advertised in a library for young people from 4 - 4.30pm, specifically stating it was not suitable for very young children yet promoted on Twitter as running 4-5pm and as bedtime stories which clerarly pitches it at an audience for littlies.

Hopefully JLIS will not be taking the council's lead and start promoting libraries properly.  Although they are not answering queries regarding the confusion, which is not helpful, but it is early days.

Let's watch this space.

And hopefully it will mean improved book stock in our libraries

Let's face it.  It would be hard not to improve on scenes like these.

And the erratic book selection will hopefully be addressed too, likened by one avid library user to the bargain book pack at the end of a bookseller's clearance sale rather than the careful selection of stock to meet Croydon's needs.

Let's watch this space!

Feel free to leave a comment - We encourage the signing of posts please.

Or pass on comments in confidence to savecroydonlibraries@gmail.com

The REAL cost of Privatisation

Thanks to library campaigner Alan Wylie for the following link.  It certainly puts the risks of library privatisation in perspective.
http://www.calaborfed.org/userfiles/doc/2011/blog/LibraryPrivatizations.pdf

Is this really a risk worth taking?

With Croydon Labour already threatening to cancel the JLIS deal and with Croydon Conservatives potentially only having a year left in control, the fall out from this deal on the taxpayer is potentially enormous.

This will affect us all - library user, library supporter or not.

Surely it is time to pause for thought or we may all be paying the price for an ill-considered decision for years to come.

Cllr Pollard doubts his own decision on #Croydon libraries

According to a press release that was only uploaded over the bank holiday weekend, Cllr Tim Pollard is calling his own decision in for scrutiny. 

"Yeah but, no but" decisions

The press release reads, 

"Savings and improvements to services will result from a fresh recommendation to appoint John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS) as preferred bidder to run the council's library service.
The decision to go with the firm is now to be examined by Croydon Council's scrutiny committee. 

JLIS was originally chosen as the authority's preferred library-operating partner after its bid was judged to have been the best, based on an assessment of price and quality. However, the company made a request for a last-minute variation to its obligations concerning employer pension contributions. 

In line with EU contract tendering rules, the council therefore reopened bidding to other final-stage bidders. 

Two revised bids were subsequently received and carefully assessed. As a result, the council will secure the most economically advantageous terms while, at the same time, protecting the quality of services currently on offer. 

Councillor Tim Pollard, the cabinet member responsible for the service, will be ensuring that there is an examination by the cross-party scrutiny committee of how the council reached this decision. This will enable those with an interest in the project to fully understand how the evaluation team reached its conclusions.

The council undertook the tendering project after a public consultation exercise that came at a time when libraries across the country were coming under increasing threat of closures.
The move continues to be seen as the best means of ensuring there will be no risk of Croydon losing any of its libraries. 

Councillor Pollard said: "I'm very pleased that we've reached this point so quickly after the recent delay. My intention now is to ensure that the basis of my decision is examined fully, and that's why I'll be ensuring this matter is taken to our scrutiny committee. 

"This will give councillors from both parties the opportunity to understand how we've arrived at this point and what the benefits will be of entering into this new contract." 

Subject to the decision-making process reaching its conclusion, it is anticipated that the new service will start from the beginning of October."


Having raised questions as to  why Cllr Pollard was so shy to announce his decision, taken late before a bank holiday weekend at the start of Croydon school's half-term break,  with local residents also raising questions  and Croydon Labour threatening to cancel the contract should they gain power in 2014,  it seems even Cllr Pollard has lost his nerve and called his own decision in for scrutiny.

You really could not make it up! 

Cue yet another Private Eye article.

The scrutiny committee failed to take any notice of the body of evidence from the politically neutral Save Croydon Libraries Campaign last time and are likely to do so now, but if Cllr Cummings (who promised to get in touch, but failed to do so) wishes to take this evidence on board, or any other councillor sitting on scrutiny wishes to, please get in touch.  Email us at savecroydonlibraries@gmail.com

Can you believe #Croydon Labour on libraries?

A press release was issued today and kindly forwarded to the Campaign group as it had not shared directly with us. 

This press release will anger people further.  We are the campaign group in Croydon and no one has heard what we have to say so it is unbelievable that the press release is entitled "Labour Listens to Library Campaigners"

Here is the contents of the press release in its entirely.

LABOUR LISTENS TO LIBRARY CAMPAIGNERS
Croydon's Labour Leader Cllr Tony Newman and Lambeth Leader Cllr Lib Peck joined forces with Upper Norwood councillor Pat Ryan this week to restate Labour’s commitment to the much loved and treasured Upper Norwood Joint library. Labour Leader Councillor Tony Newman said:  

"Labour councillors have forced an Emergency meeting on Croydon Council for this Monday to defend all of Croydon's libraries; fighting Tory plans to privatise our valued libraries and their staff. The Tories plans to sell our libraries will cost council tax payers in Croydon more money and it will rip the heart out of the libraries vital role in our community. These are not my words but those of library users and campaigners in Croydon.”  

Labour’s spokesperson for Libraries Councillor Timothy Godfrey said: 

"The Upper Norwood Library Trust is a model that the incoming Labour council of 2014 is determined to see rolled out across to other libraries in Croydon. It will give the community a real say in how our libraries are run and what services are provided there." 

Leader of Lambeth Council Councillor Lib Peck said: 

"I was delighted to join Croydon Labour colleagues to reaffirm our commitment to Upper Norwood Library service and supporting Croydon Labour's fight against the Tory cuts to library services and other sectors in Croydon."

Croydon Labour have not forced a meeting.  This is procedure.

Croydon Conservatives do not plan to " sell our libraries".

If Croydon Labour insist on ignoring the views of residents they will have little chance of becoming "the incoming Labour Council of 2014" as no one will trust them. At least the Conservatives kept up the pretence of consulting. It was a totally flawed consultation and ignoring the views of residents but at least they went through the motions.  But Labour, who promised a public meeting that never materialised, are now foisting a plan, built of political dogma, without any engagement with the public.

Where did this come from? Does anyone know?

Is there any party in Croydon likely to actually represent the views and wishes of Croydon residents?

If there are any residents or library campaigners who are in contact with Labour and feeding in these views please do get in touch as we do not know of you and would like to understand where this has come from.

We doubt very much they exist.

Money to burn on gloss

Why would Croydon redecorate libraries immediately before they plan to hand them over to John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS) and why are they being shut for such lengthy periods in order to do the redecoration in libraries that have been left neglected for so many years?

JLIS will be responsible for the redecoration and upkeep in all but a few of our libraries in the future if they are awarded the contract.

Details of closures are as follows:

Bradmore Green Library

Closing 4pm Saturday 2 February
Re-opening 9.30am Monday 18 February

Coulsdon Library

Closing 4pm Saturday 2 March.
Re-opening 9am Tuesday 2 April

Purley Library

Closing 4pm Saturday 2 February
Re-opening 9am Monday 4 March

Sanderstead Library

Closing 4pm Saturday 2 March
Re-opening 9am Tuesday 2 April

Shirley Library

Closing 4pm Saturday 2 March
Re-opening 9am Monday 25 March

South Norwood Library

closing 4pm Saturday 23 February
Re-opening 9am Monday 11 March

How much money must Croydon burn before the 5th April?

Money that could have been used for essential services.

Wake Up New Addo!

Croydon's New Addington Library is back in the news but the 'facts' and even the headline are seriously questionable. You can read the full article here, entitled,  "Council promises no loss of books as New Addington library moves from 'derelict' site"

Let's look at the facts:

Bookstock

"NEW Addington's library will have the same number of, or more, books when it moves to the Calat Centre, the council has promised."

The article also adds.

"Council bosses had been unable to guarantee stock levels or space at the relocated library, leaving users fearing they would be left with just a few shelves of books. But a council spokesman told the Advertiser: "Its stock levels will be maintained for borrowing or using on site."

This fails to mention that the stock now held is hugely reduced in comparison with stock held even a year ago. Books were boxed up and sold off, leaving row after row of bare or near bare shelving.  In some branches shelving and book stands were even removed to try to mask how depleted the stock had become. This was reported here and on insidecroydon.com

Space and facilities

"It will be housed across two floors of the centre in Central Parade, taking up roughly the same floor space – 400 square metres – as it does now."

The existing building is a single floor building with easy access, large windows offering natural light and a view overlooking grassed areas. The library is open plan, allowing flexible use of space and is for the sole us of the library service. You can visit this 'derelict' building, which is no the worse for wear than it has been for many years, still offering a spacious, warm, dry, purpose built space to read, study and research, before the council shuts it, that is!

The CALAT building has had to be extensively modified in order to incorporate the library, meaning greatly reduced offering of Adult Education classes such as basic Literacy and Numeracy courses, IT and the removal of essential facilities, such as back wash sinks in a purpose built room, where very popular vocational courses in hair and beauty were run in the past.

Travel to other centres for vocational and basic educational courses is a huge barrier to many New Addington residents as this requires finding not only the fare to travel but the added time to do so and often the added problem of childcare on top of this, making the additional cost prohibitive.

The library will share the space not only with the CALAT classes but the Job Centre, a nursery, an ICT suite and admin/office areas. Those who know the building well question how the CALAT Centre will be transformed into a tardis to afford the new library facility anything like the spacious area that the current library now occupies.

Additional benefits

The article states that,

"A considerable amount of new stock will be added after consultation, which has been held."

More stock will only replace the stock removed. With Croydon's record on consultations it is questionable how many of the suggestions offered will have been genuinely considered.  Who knew of this consultation? The consultation was not even adequately advertised and dates conflicted. Three months on and still no outcome advertised.

And, the article goes on to add,

"The library will have longer opening hours and refreshments facilities."

Well the CALAT building is already open longer hours as courses are run in the evening.  There is no mention of staffing and Laing will, no doubt, install self-service machines. Is this really a plus?  If access is a plus why has Croydon not made the extremely underused ICT suite in the CALAT Centre available to the public years ago, given the high demand for the computers in the existing library?

And we get refreshments! Well if a couple of vending machines is a selling point Croydon council really are showing their contempt for New Addington residents. These could have been installed in the existing library many years ago if this is what was needed or desired.  By all accounts received, the existing vending machines, housing chocolate bars and snacks has not been replenished for some time.

With many food and beverage outlets offering a choice of well-priced, fresh goods in the parade of shops opposite is there really any demand for pre-packed mechanically-dispensed junk-food items?

The unwitting accomplices

New Addington Pathfinders, a community group, have been used as a pawn in this shambles. Whilst championing the importance of the library for the estate they are taken in by council spin. They have assured residents that anything could be ordered in, failing to realise that DVDs and the like could not, and that any book items ordered incurred a charge.

They readily accept without question that a building that the residents still use is, in fact, derelict, yet have remained silent on the matter for years. They are just thankful that the estate, one of the most deprived areas of Croydon, is not losing the library facility totally!

Whilst more affluent and/or proactive areas such as Old Coulsdon, Norbury, Upper Norwood and Sanderstead are well-represented by local groups,(even if failed by their Residents' Associations in some cases; Sanderstead's in particular!) Pathfinders have given up the fight for essential facilities to serve a community ill-equipped to fight the battle for themselves as simply existing, finding work or putting food on the table are higher priority.  The fact that the council plays on the silence of this community because of their vulnerability is sickening.

Wake Up New Addington! You need to stand up to be heard.

Anyone is welcome to post on this blog or get in touch, in confidence.

Croydon stand united on libraries. Be part of the fight back!