Suffolk County Council have no mandate for their Library Plans

It is an integral part of our political system in the UK that a party seeking election publishes a manifesto detailing their plans if elected. It is taken on trust that they will honour such a manifesto. In January 2011 Suffolk County Council who are dominated by the Conservative party published a consultation on the future of libraries in Suffolk.

Suffolk County Council have confirmed since then that within three years they intend to provide no library services themselves and employ no staff. Existing libraries will be run by local communities, private companies or closed. Whatever way you look at this and even if you think this is just what should happen this is a radical departure from the past and as the consultation document itself says: "Services to be delivered differently in the future".

The Endeavour House Meeting

Today Suffolk Library campaigners from Stradbroke, Leiston, Bungay and Debenham attended a meeting at Endeavour House to discuss the library consultation process and the future of Suffolk Libraries. Suffolk County Council fielded no less that 12 people led by Cllr Judy Terry, Cabinet Lead and officers Guenever Pachent and Anna McCreadie.

Suffolk's Head of Communications Simon Higgins was also at the meeting which started quite badly when the first thing he said to us (rather than welcoming us as guests) was to tell us no filming and recording would be permitted at the meeting and then to react very badly when it was decided to re-arrange the room layout which had been laid out like a classroom into a more meeting-like layout. We (and this included a County Councillor) had just assumed it was laid out from the last meeting and re-arranged it....

So the meeting started and there were the usual introductions and we all said what we wanted to get out of the meeting. I am not going to detail every part of the discussion but summarise the main points as I saw them.

• Suffolk CC admitted that their overall budget cuts are around 19.6% over the next three years but made it quite clear that they would not even discuss the reasons or any prospect of changing the 30% cuts proposed for libraries. As far as they are concerned it is a "done deal".
• We heard time and time again that this is just a consultation and interestingly (and this is either a change or something I have missed) that there will be further consultations before any libraries would be closed or contracted out.
• Suffolk tried to close down any discussions in flaws with the consultation process but did admit that it could have been better handled. They would not accept the case to re-run the consultations as a result but did agree that there was a need to do a further needs assessment and provide additional information to prospective community library groups.
• Suffolk admitted the distinction between "county" and "community" libraries does not really work and they have effectively already abandoned it except for Ipswich, Lowestoft and Bury. Whilst this is welcome it does mean that the proposed "county" libraries are under more threat than they might have thought.
• Suffolk stated they did not expect to employ any library staff directly once the divestment process ended
• There was an interesting discussion about divestment with several groups saying that they favored a complete handover of budget and service (like the academy model for schools) if libraries were to be run locally. Any services needed from the County could then be bough back by the local group that would have an agreed budget from the County. "Give us the money and we will run the service" was the point.
• Suffolk stated that they started the consultation believing that the proposed County Libraries would be enough to satisfy their legal obligations under the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act. They seem less sure now and wanting to watch the judicial review pending and I think they are aware that the consultation process so far wold not stand up to scrutiny. However they have now said there will be more consultation and we will hold them to this!
• Suffolk claimed to be genuinely surprised at the strength of feeling and how much people love their libraries. The point was made that if they had read their own surveys and listened to their own staff they would have known this.
• We made the point that most people we have spoken to still think that Suffolk should run libraries but they continue to say this is not an option and that we should effectively give up trying. The point was made that this was said about forests....
• It was suggested that Suffolk pilot the community library idea with a number of interested groups to see how well the model worked and his idea seemed to get general acceptance around the table on all sides.

The meeting was certainly interesting! Suffolk still seem to be at the stage that they are trying to control everything and seem ill at ease dealing with the campaigners who also all had another hat on as potential community library managers. I think they were trying a bit of divide and rule and were perhaps surprised that those protesting and those suggesting community library models were saying similar things and wearing both hats.

On a personal level I don't think I am the most popular person at Endeavour House. Cllr Judy Terry at one point accused me of:

pursuing a political agenda and not having an interest in any particular library

Ann Kerr, Chairman of Stradbroke Parish Council had to point out this was completely untrue and (as anyone with a web browser would be well aware) I have been a leading member of the Save Stradbroke Library campaign. I don't have a political agenda unlike the conservative politician called Cllr Terry!

So it remains to be seen where things go but I think that we have at least opened a dialogue and got a commitment to carry out a better needs assessment and further consultations. I hope we will see a pilot or pilots of community libraries emerge. I think we are all prepared to work with Suffolk County Council but we will keeping a close eye on them and have not ruled anything out if it becomes clear that our libraries are still under threat.

Also well worth reading is Andrew Grant-Adamson's Wordblog Post on the meeting he also attended the meeting and is a campaigner from Debenham

Suffolk Library Campaigners Unite to meet Suffolk County Council at Endeavour House

Endeavour House, Suffolk CC's
Corporate HQ in Ipswich

Tomorrow library campaigners from Stradbroke, Leiston, Rosehill, Bungay and Debenham are meeting with Cllr Judy Terry, Cabinet Lead for the library consultation and other members of the library consultation project team.

The meeting has been prompted by considerable concern about the consultation process that Suffolk County Council are undertaking and the apparent attempt to "divide and rule" that is emerging from meetings that have been held across the County.

The meeting is taking place at Endeavour House, Suffolk's imposing looking corporate HQ in Ipswich at 1000. Issues expected  to be covered at the meeting include:

• The legality of the plans and consultation process under the 1964 Libraries and Musems Act in the light of judicial review proceedings started against other County Councils
• Flaws in the consultation documentation, assumptions and process
• Suffolk's attempts to "divide and rule" and pitch library against library to bid for resources
• The so-called "core offer" and what exactly it would cost to run a library, what support Suffolk would provide and for how long
• Suffolk's reation to the widespread public disapporoval of its plans and the views of local MPs and other councils
• What information from the consultation Suffolk will share with local communities as the consultation proceeds

We are calling upon the County Council to halt the consultation, conduct a proper detailed inquiry into library services in Suffolk including a proper consultation and needs assessment without the flaws of the first one. Unless this happens campaigners might be forced to look at a judicial review against the County Council in a similar way to those in Somerset and Gloucestershire.

I am sure it will be an interesting meeting, I will blog about it Friday afternoon when I am home!

Stradbroke Library Public Meeting: Suffolk CC Forced to Apologise to Parish Council

Stradbroke Community Centre Packed for Library Public
Meeting 21st February 2011

Yesterday evening the small Suffolk village of Stradbroke held a public meeting in the Community Centre to discuss the future of the library that is threatened with closure and the Courthouse building that houses the library.

More than 150 residents gathered for the meeting arranged by Stradbroke Parish Council. Guy McGregor, Parish Councillor for Stradbroke (who is a member of Cabinet and voted for the cuts) and Roger McMaster Head of Suffolk Libraries attended the meeting and were sat on the front row. The meeting started with a screening of our film "What Users Think" where we asked library users to tell us why they attended the Day of Action on 5 February:

During the film Cllr McGregor looked awkward, seemed to be reading papers and even had his eyes closed at times. Roger McMaster watched attentively and later said he found the film "moving".

Parish Council Chair Ann Kerr gave a convincing speech showing her commitment to libraries and commenting that we did not need lectures on the "Big Society" from County or Government as "we have been doing it for hundreds of years".

A petition of around 750 signatures was presented to Guy McGregor which is am amazing number for a village of some 1250 people....

Both came in for criticism from the audience and Roger McMaster was forced to apologise for misleading the parish council during meetings at the end of last year when they suggested the library could be kept running in return for an investment of £900 a year by the Parish Council. With the publication of the consultation this plan went off the table and it wasn't clear at the end of the meeting just what the position was and how much money the village would need to find to keep the library open.

Guy McGregor was shouted down from the floor when he started to make party political points about the budget deficit and struggled to answer questions without the political crutch to rely on.

Many were willing to do anything to keep the library open even pay for borrowing books (Roger McMaster pointed out the Council could not charge by law) but others pointed our we had already paid for this from our Council Tax.

Suffolk's responses were frequently unconvincing and many questions from the floor could not be answered or were poorly answered. At one stage after Roger McMaster was claiming Stradbroke library was expensive with a high cost per issue I had to lend him copies of his own figures and point out Ipswich Central Library cost more per issue than Stradbroke!

Radio Stradbroke made an audio recording of the meeting and have published a podcast. press play below. If you prefer you can download the podcast as an MP3 file (right click on the download link). File size is 72Mb


So the fight continues but Stradbroke made a strong show that it wants to keep its library and that it expects the County Council to listen.