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Published: 01 July, 2010
by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS and RICHARD OSLEY

THE Town Hall’s new leisure chief has declared that she can make “no guarantees” over the future of two popular libraries in the climate of cuts.

Labour cabinet member Councillor Tulip Siddiq said she would make “no promises” over keeping Belsize and Chalk Farm libraries open during a rowdy exchange at Monday’s full council meeting.

She said the uncertainty was not her fault and laid the blame on the lack of guidance from the government over its spending plans, which will not be fleshed out until October.

But on the opposition benches at the Town Hall there is a fear that libraries will be seen as a soft target when the Labour council works out its own spending priorities against the backdrop of trying to keep council tax down and funding other manifesto promises.

Libraries in Camden were famously only saved from closure in the late 1990s after rebel Labour councillors refused to vote with their leadership.

Cllr Siddiq has now been openly challenged by Conservative councillor Jonny Bucknell to make a “cast-iron guarantee” that the libraries in Antrim Road and Sharpleshall Street will not be shut down.

Cllr Siddiq, who has headed Camden’s leisure department for two months, declined to make the commitment, leading to chants of “shame, shame” across the floor of the council chamber.

Cllr Bucknell had earlier drawn an admission by Cllr Siddiq that library opening hours had been extended rather than reduced under the Lib Dem and Conservative coalition, which ran the council until Labour took over in May.

Cllr Bucknell, re-elected in Belsize two months ago after four years away from the council chamber, said his colleagues had done “remarkably well” on libraries when they were in power.

In a heated exchange between the two politicians, he said: “Given that the previous administration did remarkably well in increasing library hours, can you give us a cast-iron guarantee that you will not close Chalk Farm or Belsize libraries?”

In mock surprise, Cllr Siddiq said: “Did you just say ‘amazingly well’? What was your terminology?” She twice mistakenly referred to her new rival as “Councillor Buckland”.

His voice rising, Cllr Bucknell said: “Answer the question, yes or no, will you give a guarantee for these libraries?”

Cllr Siddiq: “I will get back to you on the libraries that you ask about.”

Cllr Bucknell: “Don’t come back to us. Will you guarantee us now that you will keep those libraries open to allay public fear?”

Cllr Siddiq: “I will absolutely not make any guarantees. I can’t make any promises until I hear what central government has to say to us but I’d point out to you that library opening hours is not the only thing in the library issue. I don’t know if you are aware but I had a library-only surgery in the last week and I can just tell you that I’ve never been so popular in all my life. People were beating down the door to complain about the changes that your administration had made.”

The issue of libraries has been ramped up the political agenda at the Town Hall after months of unrest over changes made to the service. Managers have tried to dampen a rebellion among users of Heath Library in Keats Grove – and are now coming up against anger around the branches cited by Cllr Bucknell. 

Several Conservatives privately believe that library services will inevitably be a possible area for cutbacks as the Labour council struggles with fewer resources from Whitehall and a desire to maintain the popular run of council tax freezes in Camden.

Cllr Siddiq said after the meeting: “This is a new politics where we will say what we think and if the coalition government would be clearer, we could be too.

“But there will be no doubt that I will be fighting for our libraries.”

Ron Watts, chairman of the Belsize Park Library Users Group, said Cllr Siddiq had told him she could only guarantee the future of the library for six months but “couldn’t guarantee anything after that”. Mick Hudspeth, manager of the Primrose Hill Community Centre, said Chalk Farm library played a “pivotal” role in the community