Ed Miliband’s closest library under threat

Published: 20th January, 2011
by DAN CARRIER

LABOUR leader Ed Miliband told the New Journal last night (Wednesday) that potential library closures on his home turf in Camden should be blamed on his rivals at Westminster.

His comments about the specific threat to the borough’s libraries came as protesters began devising campaigns such as “read-ins” and the mass withdrawal of books.

The Town Hall has told regular users that the library budget will be reduced by 20 per cent.

Alan Templeton said the Camden Public Libraries User Group, which he chairs, is poring over the annual costs of all of Camden’s 13 branches and have handed over leaked financial spreadsheets to an ac­countant to sift through. The idea is to check Town Hall figures stack up and the claim that libraries are the biggest demand on the leisure service.

Last night Mr Mili­band, who lives in Dartmouth Park near Highgate Library, one of the branches in the firing line, told the New Journal that library services had to be protected. 

He said: “Libraries strengthen our communities immensely. They are places in which people come together to learn, to get to know each other and to form lasting friendships. That’s why libraries are so deeply ingrained in our country.

“The potential closures in Camden are being brought about by this Conservative-led government, which is cutting local government spending too far and too fast, damaging the services people hold dear. They should think again.”

Mr Templeton warned that while no closures had yet been confirmed, there was a sense that an axe would fall somewhere.

“We are deeply suspicious of what the Town Hall is up to,” he said. “We want to be flexible in our discussions but we do not want a pseudo-consultation that has only really one option at the end of it – closing sites.

“The present situation is developing along the same lines as that of 1998, when the council last made a determined attack on the libraries.

“The overwhelming expectation is that the promised consultation will be a sham. Camden does not consult. It arranges for the population to show its agreement with a policy it wishes to implement. 

“The window dressing is interesting, but irrelevant. It is possible to get a result that is different to that intended by the council, but that involves a major battle.”

He added there were plans to hold a library “read-in” on February 5, and were also considering a tactic used in Milton Keynes, which saw library members taking out their full allowance of 15 books in one go.

Meetings at Highgate Library next Thursday and in Hampstead Town Hall on February 8 have been organised to rally support against cuts and lay out battle plans to stop any closures.

Options discussed nat­ionally include handing over libraries to trusts, or letting volunteers keep them running until rosier financial times return.

Labour leisure chief Councillor Tulip Siddiq said: “We want to preserve them. However, all services have been asked for a 20 per cent reduction. While libraries will be protected by a smaller cut and large efficiency savings are being made, it’s clear we can’t get through this first, three-year cuts programme without some impact on services. “We need to shape a service that survives, as the government cuts will last for six years, which is why we are talking to people now.”