Painswick: library hope after repeated blows to town

Latest news after a public meeting last week in Painswick is that Gloucestershire County Council will still sell the building - gaining an estimated £325,000. They are offering a possible 20% discount to a community group but at the moment are not giving assurances about whether they will continue to fund library services in the town other than a visit by a Mobile Library.

Painswick library is apparently the least used in the County - but anybody whose visited it will know it is very drab to say the least - investment is urgently needed - and works - Dursley library has seen significant increases in use since the new building was opened.

So where are we now?

The United Reform Church are offering some £150,000 if they can also have use of the building and already an astonishing £52,000 has been raised by the community - the local newsletter, The Beacon, has also just gone out with an appeal to 900 homes for more money. The County have extended their deadline until mid-Feb. This to me is an outrage. How dare they sell community assets in this fashion. Worse still it was only a couple of months ago that Cabinet Councillor Tony Hicks apparently promised the library would not be cut.

I have spoken with several local people including one of the local District councillors about how best to go forward - I suspect there will be cross-party support locally for calling the County to not sell or at least not give that money back to the community - already 700 people signed a petition to save the service - mind even if the community can raise the money they need a commitment to staff the service. It could be a great opportunity to really develop a community resource. Certainly it is needed.

Painswick is at a bit of a turning point - and more County cuts

Already the bank has closed, only one store left, the Post Office for sale and news that the North Stroud Cotswold Link bus service is to be axed.

The pattern of odd library closures is being repeated across the country - more worrying is the cuts to new books, hours of opening etc. Indeed in today's Citizen Glos County have announced there will be cuts to staffing at libraries.

A new way forward?

A new development is that councils are looking at handing responsibility for libraries over to local communities, following the breakaway of five Buckinghamshire branches from council control in October 2006. Northumberland, Lancashire county, Powys and Dorset councils along with our very own Gloucestershire are all looking to see if they can turn small branches over to local residents, who may have access to parish grants not open to county councils.

Paul Leivers, head of cultural services for Dorset, where 13 libraries face the axe, said: "We want to see if there are ways of maintaining the service without it necessarily being run by the council. We are under huge cost pressure [and] if there are ways of squaring the circle, that is the right thing to do." Jo Hand, assistant head of libraries in Gloucestershire, agreed, saying: "We are looking at new ways of delivering the service, which can be just as effective, if not even better."

This new model, whereby councils make local people responsible for running and often funding the service themselves, was first implemented in Buckinghamshire and endorsed by minister for culture, David Lammy, at the Public Library Authorities conference (see below). Other councils considering the move are less convinced of its merits. Marguerite Gracey, head of libraries in Northumberland, where 12 branches are under review, said: "It's the only way of keeping it going, but how long for, I'm not sure."

This echos my own fears - grants are one thing but often dry up - County's can then stand back and avoid blame as libraries close. Heres the bit about David Lammy from the Bookseller, 13 October 2006:

Delivery of the public library service could be handed over to local communities, Minister for Culture David Lammy has revealed. He mooted the move at the Public Library Authorities (PLA) 2006 conference in Southampton, as part of a wider plan to loosen central government's grip on the sector and expand its community role. Lammy flagged up plans for substantial changes to the way libraries are assessed. He said the plans would be "leading to a system with much less red tape. Councils need the powers, and the freedom, to respond to local concerns". The devolution could be extended beyond councils, Mr Lammy added: "I can even imagine community groups being commissioned by the council to take on and run their library. We should not be afraid of that." The suggestion follows a similar move by Buckinghamshire residents, who defeated plans to close eight libraries with proposals to run the service themselves. Residents in Caton, Lancaster, have laid plans to open a community-run library which would charge members £5 to £10 a year. Lammy also responded to ongoing calls for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to ringfence book funds or to seize control of failing authorities. He said: "What one community may want can harm another and a national policy or initiative is not always the answer to the problem." However, the Shadow Minister for Culture, Tory MP Mark Field, said the DCMS had a statutory responsibility to provide a "proper library service" to the nation. The news comes as The National Lottery released £80 million of capital funding to public libraries to help strengthen the service's "place in the community life". Grants of between £250,000 and £2 million were made available to local authority library services in England to improve buildings or expand the range of activities on offer.

Meanwhile my previous blog item (see 'labels' below to find previous entry on 1st June 2006) on Painswick library led to Ruth Rikowski contacting me. An expert in this field she will be talking about her globalisation book at a London meeting of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. See
http://www.cilip.org.uk/branches/byregion/london/events/feb07.htm

She aslo informed the Managing Information website to put the blog as an item of news on their website: Managing Information - Your Eye On The Information World - plus an item on her own site:
http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=news&sub=General%20News%20Items

Think that's enough for now on libraries - time for something to eat!