Following our successful lobby at Lewisham council's Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee meeting on Monday 5th November, last night Save Lewisham Libraries campaigner Alice Corble was granted 3 minutes to speak at the council's Public Accounts Select Committee (PAC), presenting our argument against the proposed cuts to Lewisham Library Service. The outcome of the meeting was that these proposed cuts will be referred on to Mayor and Cabinet for further scrutiny, on the grounds that a full Equalities Impact Assessment needs to be undertaken to inform a meaningful consultation. The
Mayor and Cabinet meeting will take place on
Wednesday 21st November at 6:30pm.
A full copy of Alice's statement to PAC is detailed below.
Wednesday 7th November 2018
Dear Cllr. Mallory, Chair of Lewisham Public Accounts Committee,
I would like to request that a statement be tabled at the Public
Accounts Select Committee meeting tonight, 7 November, 2018 7.00 pm, and that I
could be granted permission to speak on this statement at tonight’s meeting.
The statement concerns budget cuts proposals: COM 11 Hub
Libraries cuts to staffed opening hours, which have been added to section
3.28 of tonight’s supplementary agenda as a result of the outcome of a vote on
this matter at the Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee meeting on
Monday 5th November 2018.
I posed my initial statement to the SSCSC and have as yet received
no written response from any councillors or senior officers on my concerns.
Head of Cultural and Community Development Liz Dart verbally defended the COM
11 budget cuts proposals the SSC Committee members present did not deem her
response sufficient to dismiss my concerns and hence referred it on to PAC. I
argue that it is essential that this urgent matter is referred up to Mayor and
Cabinet so council officers can formally address my concerns and the council be
held accountable in its statutory duties. My argument is elaborated in the
statement below.
I write this statement from several pertinent subject positions of
expertise:
- as a
long-term Lewisham resident and library user (SE6, Catford South);
- as a
former Librarian employed by Lewisham Library and Information Service;
- as a
Lecturer at Goldsmiths College with a recent sociology doctorate on the
topic of the negative implications of cuts to public library services for
UK society (a thesis which includes London Borough of Lewisham as an
empirical case study); and
- as a
member of the Save Lewisham Campaign group, on behalf of whom I write.
Statement
requesting Lewisham Public Accounts Select Committee to refer COM 11 Libraries cuts to staffed opening hours proposals to Mayor & Cabinet for Public Scrutiny
It is proposed that £450,000 is cut from the library service
budget via one of two implementation methods:
Option
1) – remove library staff from Downham and Deptford making these self-service
facilities with occasional support from the peripatetic team.
Option
2) – reduce staffed opening hours across Downham, Deptford and Lewisham by 45%
from 64 hours per week to 35 hours per week. The buildings would remain open on
a self-service basis outside those hours, although access in Lewisham would be
restricted to the ground floor.
Following the SSC Select Committee members’ discussion of a
challenge we posed to them potential illegality and failures of public duty in
implementing these proposals, it was decided to refer this matter onto PAC on
the grounds that:
The Committee felt the proposals in their current form were
unacceptable and further consultation was necessary before a decision could be
made. A full Equalities Impact Assessment should also be undertaken. The
Committee highlighted that section 9 of the budget pro-forma stated that those
affected included ‘some of the most vulnerable in our society (who) will have
been signposted to the library service by other public sector bodies such as
Job Centre Plus, Central Government Departments, council services, GP etc.’
We request that urgent Equality Impact Assessments are made, that
are full, transparent, rigorous, detailing any and all mitigating actions with
regards to people with disabilities, adults with learning difficulties,
homeless people, EAL residents, children and young people, the digitally
excluded - all of whom will have difficulty accessing library services without
staff - this particularly applies to Deptford and Downham: areas highly populated
with residents with 'protected characteristics' as defined under the Equalities
Act 2010.
The initial index impact report for the COM 11 Hub Libraries Cuts
Proposals has already identified a high risk of further antisocial behaviour
within the named libraries, which are likely to make these libraries unsafe
no-go areas for children, vulnerable adults and older people. What will be done
to mitigate this?
We request that the Equality Impact Assessments and Health &
Safety Assessments are made public before the consultation on the cuts
and argue for more time for these to be carried out by officers.
Along with the predicted impact on communities, we believe these
cuts will lead to the rational probability of Lewisham Council failing to
exercise its statutory duty to “provide a comprehensive and efficient library
service for all persons desiring to make use thereof” under the Public
Libraries and Museums Act 1964. It is with regard "all desiring
persons" that Lewisham may fail its statutory duty if these cuts go ahead.
Can the Public Accounts Select Committee justify continuing with
these proposed hub library cuts, when unstaffed/reduced-staffed libraries are
likely to Lewisham to a failure of meet its public sector statutory duties on
several fronts and leave vulnerable service users with with nowhere to go at
times when they need them most?
The three ‘hub’ libraries are the only libraries in the borough
that remain fully operational with paid professional staff following the
successive rounds of cuts in 2010 and 2015. Removing staff and/or reducing
staff hours from these critical sites in 2019 means that they would become hubs
without spokes, unable to move forward in meeting the needs of Lewisham’s
population, and thereby precipitating an irreversible decline in both quality
of service and quality of life.
Children and young people are the most likely demographic group to
use a library and are the most frequent users of library services across the
country (DCMS Taking Part 2016
diversity statistics). Children under the age of 16 can only enter during “staffless” times
if accompanied by an adult. With many families in Lewisham struggling to make
ends meet and work multiple jobs to survive, and one in four of Lewisham
residents being under the age of 19, the professionally-staffed public library
is one of the only places children and young people can go safely to meet their
needs after school.
Women, BAME people, disabled people and people with limited English language
and digital literacy skills are much more likely to use their local library, so
they will be disproportionately affected by library cuts (DCMS Taking Part 2016
diversity statistics)
.
The contribution that professionally-staffed public libraries make
to safeguarding the literacy, development and productivity of current and future generations is not worth sacrificing to these
cuts. Indeed, cutting from public libraries at this critical time will only
increase demand on other essential services:
“Being
a regular library user is associated with a 1.4 percent increase in the
likelihood of reporting good general health. We valued this improvement in
health in terms of cost savings to the NHS. Based on reductions in GP visits
caused by this improvement in health, we predict the medical cost savings
associated with library engagement at £1.32 per person per year. It is possible
to aggregate NHS cost savings across the library-using English population to
estimate an average cost saving of £27.5 million per year.” (Arts Council
England, 2015)
“Digital
inclusion delivery models and pilots carried out by 16 library services across
England, funded by Tinder Foundation [now Good Things Foundation], allowed
library services to support 1,600 people. Potential channel shift cost savings
for government services of £800k per annum across the 16 library service areas
was identified - £7.5m per year if rolled out nationally across all 151
authorities”
(CILIP, 2018).
Public library
services and spaces are unique insofar as they underpin and intersect with
elements of all other public services.
We urge the Public Accounts Select Committee to recommend to Mayor
and Cabinet that these proposed cuts be reconsidered as they are based on a
false economy, put large sections of the Lewisham public at risk, and are
likely to place the council in breach of its public sector statutory duties.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Alice Corble
(on behalf of Save Lewisham Libraries Campaign Group)
Dr. Alice
R. Corble
Associate
Lecturer
Sociology
and Media, Communications & Cultural Studies departments
Goldsmiths,
University of London
New
Cross, London
SE14
6NW
