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| Welcome to our newsletter round up of July’s UK libraries news! |
FINE AND NANDY? |
That’s politics… the shadow libraries minister we met and liked, Lillian Greenwood, has been transported to transport. Now, after a nail-bitingly long wait, just as this newsletter was finalised, we have our new minister – Sir Chris Bryant (Rhondda MP). |
| He will be busy. His remit is: “arts and libraries, creative industries, museums and cultural property, cultural diplomacy and soft power, tourism and heritage”. He was shadow secretary of state for culture in 2015. Otherwise his political career has been in foreign policy committees and as long-standing Leader (or deputy or shadow Leader) of the Commons. We are seeking an early meeting. Lisa Nandy (Wigan MP) is Secretary of State (the 13th in 14 years). So, what about Lisa Nandy? She hasn’t had a culture brief before. She has consistently spoken against starving local councils, with culture especially in mind. In her first speech to DCMS staff she said: “For too long, for too many people, the story we tell ourselves, about ourselves as a nation, has not reflected them, their communities or their lives… Changing that is the mission of this department. The era of culture wars is over… “That is how I intend us to serve our country – celebrating and championing the diversity and rich inheritance of our communities and the people in them.”There are parallel plans in education to get arts back into the schools curriculum.Libraries should fit nicely into all this. But is their role as backbone “culture” provision fully understood? We don’t know. The other minister is Stephanie Peacock (Barnsley South), who has sport, media, civil society, youth and “ceremonials”. And Baroness Twycross is just Minister for Gambling! |
| ACE TAKES AIM |
| Meanwhile ACE (Arts Council England) has lost no time in lobbying hard for “the arts”. As it should. Again, libraries – part of its remit – fit neatly into the narrative. CEO Darren Henley, in a blog, welcomed the new approach and added: “We know the profound impact that cultural investment has on places, in terms of regeneration, employment, and happiness… when cultural organisations and local leaders come together around the mission of local regeneration and growth.” He mentioned libraries… ACE Chair Nicholas Serota took the same line. He specifically mentioned libraries as among the best places to provide “a universal offer for preschool children with art and creativity at its heart”. It’s a start… |
| LIBRARY SHOPPING LISTS |
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| Pre-election, librarians’ association CILIP already had its 10-point “pledge” list, ranging from “trustworthy information” to “a warm welcome and a safe place for all” – pointing out that this needs “sustained investment”. It’s now been sent to Lisa Nandy. And library bosses’ group Libraries Connected also had its shopping list pre-election. It cannily argued that libraries can “deliver national priorities at a local level” – and made its top priority fixing the local government funding crisis. Three further priorities for any government’s first 100 days: digital inclusion, early years literacy, tackling loneliness. |
| CHESHIRE EAST – GOOD NEWS |
 We admire local ingenuity just as much as multi-million refurb projects… Wilmslow library has had a £900 grant from the town (similar to parish) council for activities to support this year’s Summer Reading Challenge. |
| It will fund a Lego Discovery day, provided by Lego Education specialists, for 120 participants plus their families. It will also fund four additional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and craft events, run by Wilmslow Library staff. |
| CHESHIRE EAST – BAD NEWS |
| However, elsewhere in the authority things are not looking so good. The Environment and Communities Committee of Cheshire East Council voted by the narrowest of margins (seven to six votes) to give the go-ahead to a public consultation based on council recommendations.‘Consultation’ will be held during the summer school holidays. It proposes only one option, a system of three-tiered provision with hours sharply reduced to just 11 a week at four smaller rural locations. The council won’t say what financial saving this was devised to meet.The four include Alderley Edge, where closure was fought off only a few years ago, and Bollington, where a newly formed Friends group got active well in advance of the consultation vote. It has already had public meetings, a children’s demonstration, a campaign in local press and social media and a petition. |
| HAVERING UNDER THREAT |
 Up to five public libraries in Havering are at risk of closure, as the council seeks toaddress its £32.5m budget shortfall. There has been a swift reaction and a group known as Havering – Save Our Libraries In Danger (S.O.L.I.D) has been formed to fight the plans. |
| They have protested outside the town hall and children have been active in demonstrating outside libraries including Harold Wood (above). Equally importantly they have been attending public consultation meetings. Following one of these it was reported that residents are becoming annoyed and frustrated at the lack of information provided by Havering Council. The consultation runs till 2 August and then we will see what the council makes of the feedback! |
| CML? WELL… |
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| We have sent evidence to Birmingham’s consultation on its cuts-driven library plans. (Acocks Green campaigners above.) We stressed in particular the folly of offering “community managed libraries” to individuals, organisations or, well, anybody, to run. It’s often not a viable solution. Some of the most recent examples…Derby is now into its second year of struggling to revive its 10 CMLs (it has just five council-run). After the previous provider suddenly wanted out last year, Derby bribed it with £415,000 to stay a bit longer, then took the CMLs back in-house. It has now spent six months seeking another provider – with no result yet.South Chingford CML, in Waltham Forest, has had £500,000 from the council over five years. It now hangs by a thread after the council tried to pull out. Now it’s been offered yet another year’s money while it tries to raise funds. Several CMLs in Lincs have had to give up running the invaluable Summer Reading Challenge for kids. The council will only buy SRC material for its own “core” libraries. Deepings is still aiming to raise the necessary £800…And one determined community in cuts-ravaged Wirral has “saved” its library in Wallasey Village (closed in 2022 with eight others) – by turning it into a shop/café. The library space has been reduced by two-thirds… |
FACEBOOK ROUND UP |
| Our regular update on Friends Groups that we follow on Facebook. Activities are so varied. For example Friends of Sidmouth Library are holding a drop-in organised by the Friends’ group about genealogy research Friends of Sea Mills Library (Bristol) will have a morning of crafts and storytelling on August 17th. Their event is free and further info can be found on their page. Meanwhile, Friends of Coppull Library, part of the wider network of Friends of Lancashire Libraries is hosting an event to help people learn the basic functions of word-processing, doing research online, and learning hope to fill out online forms amongst other IT tasks. Friends of Deddington Library (Oxfordshire) will be aiming to make a cardboard Deddington Castle! On the 1st of August, there will be a craft day as part of their ‘Marvellous Makers reading challenge’. They have announced on Facebook that they are on the lookout for cardboard shoeboxes and paper tubes a la Blue Peter as part of this fun and inspiring community event. Friends of Beechcroft Library (Swindon) have also been spreading the word about the Summer Reading Challenge. We would hope that everyone knows about the Summer Reading Challenge but just in case, discover more about here Friends of Nottingham Library have come up with an eye-catching form of protest with their KNIT IN which will be held on July 29th. We wish them all the best and will be knitting (in spirit probably) in solidarity… |
| AND FINALLY… |
| We may not yet know who is the minster responsible for libraries but one Labour MP may have been making a bid for the job. The day after the King’s speech, Navendu Mishra, Labour MP for Stockport since 2019, made a plea for libraries as “a vital hub for communities nationwide” before going on to attack the (Lib-Dem led) Stockport council for cutting opening hours. Stockport sits right next to East Cheshire (see above), so the people south of Manchester seem to have a battle on their hands to maintain decent library services. |
| Please get in touch with us if your local library is under threat, you have a Friends group that you wish to promote or you would like advice about how to start a Friends group for your local library – currently under threat or not. Feel free to ask any questions about what Friends groups get up to. We have now created an archive of our previous newsletters, which you can view here – check it out if you haven’t already and share the link as it’s also a place for new subscribers to sign up. If you are new to getting our monthly newsletter this is a way to see what we’ve been getting across since we started this newsletter in Autumn 2022. |
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