Last Thursday the Labour Council voted to close down Harrow Green Library. Residents had raised a petition of over 5,000 signatures and local Lib Dems had also raised a petition of over 1,1000 signatures to save the library.

Despite these petitions, fierce local residents’ opposition to the proposal and impassioned speeches, Labour Councillors voted to close the Library. The Tories abstained and the Liberal Democrats were the only party to vote against the closure. Even local Labour Councillors, whose residents had campaigned to stop the closure, voted to shut down Harrow Green Library.

Local Lib Dem Cann Hall Ward Councillor Liz Phillips, who has been leading the campaign in the council said:

“Local residents worked hard on this issue and took time out of their day to come and speak in the debate in good faith, only to find that the Labour Party had stitched up the result in advance.

“I’m not surprised that some residents walked out in disgust. Labour has refused to listen to local residents all along and this council meeting was no different.

“The Labour councillors can’t use a cut in the budget to hide the fact that it is them who are closing down our local library.”

The closure was based on the widely criticised libraries’ review and despite the consultation process, two petitions and recommendations from the council’s own scrutiny panel that no libraries needed to close, the Labour leadership refused to change course.

Lib Dem Leader Councillor Bob Sullivan said:

“The Libraries’ Review has been widely criticised and appears to have been a foregone conclusion from the start.

“The questions asked in the consultation were clearly misleading. For example, residents were asked if they would like their library to start opening on Sundays, but weren’t asked if they minded other libraries closing for this to be achieved.

“Of course residents suggest improved services, but if they knew that the council were robbing Harrow Green to pay for those services I believe they would think again.

These petitions indicate the overwhelming support by residents that they want to keep the Library open.

The Council’s consultation on the review of libraries has come to an end and will be reported to the Cabinet on the 11th of October.

Lib Dem councillors Liz Phillips and Bob Sullivan were members of a Scrutiny Panel that scrutinised the original Cabinet report.

The Panel noted that the Cabinet report left many questions unanswered and while it contained a great deal of information, it was not always the right information. They felt the report did not do a complete job.

The Panel identified 19 recomendations which will be given to the Cabinet in October. If implemented would support the expansive Library and Information Service, whilst negating the closure of any library.

Among the 19 panel recommendations to enable libraries to afford keeping open were:

• Shelving Sunday opening and all libraries should be closed on Mondays.
• Opening hours should be reviewed.
• The charges for the use of libraries to be reviewed.
• Consider locating staff from rental premises to space currently available in Harrow Green Library.
• Review salaries and grading of staff and review library contracts e.g. cleaning services.

There were many other recommendations, which hopefully, will give the Cabinet reasons to save the libraries from closure.