Councillor Morrison read Maya Angelou’s poem, The Human Family and former Head Librarian,
Gwen Randall, read The Owl and the Pussy Cat a nonsense poem highlighting the nonsense of library closures. This was a very well attended event.
As part of the 'Save the Libraries' campaign, a read-in was held in each of the five libraries marked for closure to demonstrate people’s love of their local libraries and the importance of books. Author Leslie Davies read an extract from her book Alexandria, which is about the murder of a librarian.
Councillor Morrison read Maya Angelou’s poem, The Human Family and former Head Librarian, Gwen Randall, read The Owl and the Pussy Cat a nonsense poem highlighting the nonsense of library closures. This was a very well attended event.
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Cllr Morrison and Karen Jonason held a meeting in the Library on Saturday 8 January, with groups and individuals who are interested in the future of the Library. A number of local groups and residents attended and had meaningful discussions about their interest.
Lewisham Council has invited bids from interested groups and they will examine their business case. It was clear that although a number of groups would like to operate out of the library they did not have the resources to take over and develop a building that is in a very poor state of repair. One interested person wants to make a bid for four out of the five libraries (see the link below), with a library service and computers being the core functions. He was keen to work with local groups and community. This gained a lot of interest from those present and a lot of conversations will be taking place before bids are submitted. We will have a follow up meeting at the library on 31 January when he will present his bid to everyone before the bid goes into to Lewisham Council to be scrutinised by the Council. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23909459-ex-city-mans-plan-for-eco-libraries.do After a tough campaign to save the five Lewisham libraries that are under the threat of closure, the Mayor deferred the decision to close them for up to two months and has ordered officers to do more work for proposals on alternative provision.
Cllr Morrison has been talking to officers about finding an appropriate community organisation that would be prepared to oversee a significant library provision for Crofton Park. Over 200 people marched to save the five libraries under threat from closure.
On Saturday 30 October over two hundred people from the five library campaigns joined together to march from Crofton Library to the Town Hall. With the cooperation of the police we were able to walk safely on the roads - Brockley Road and the South Circular. Many people from the community including Father Bates and the Rev Alison Perbody joined us and Joan Ruddock MP and Heidi Alexander MP came to speak in support of us before we set off. Just before the summer holidays, the Mayor published officer proposals for £60m worth of budget cuts, to meet the projected Tory/LibDem Coalition government’s demands. We were shocked to see the proposed closure of Crofton Park Library included. The Chair of the Ward Labour Party, Karen Jonason, and Cllr Pauline Morrison launched the 'Save the Crofton Park Library' campaign and collected a petition of 4,600 signatures which Cllr Morrison handed to the Mayor at the Council meeting on 23 September, along with petitions from the other libraries which are under threat. Over 110 people attend Library consultation meeting
St Saviour's Church Hall saw a packed library consultation meeting on Monday 23 August. Local residents made it clear that they wanted to keep their library and gave examples of the way the library had benefitted the community and their families. The meeting called on the Council to develop plans that retained the library service and the building and looked at creative ways of extending services and generating income. Councillor Morrison spoke about the need to develop employment skills workshops and computer classes by utilising the well equipped computer suite. Officers will consider the outcomes of all the consultation meetings and come back with revised plans before October. In the meantime the fight goes on! The new Coalition government has placed stringent budget cuts on local authorities. The London Borough of Lewisham has to make over £60m worth of cuts - £3.1m in the current financial year.
Part of the Council’s draft, officer proposals include the closure of five libraries:
At a meeting with officers and some stakeholders we were informed that there was a need to have a more flexible service but this was difficult due to the poor buildings. Crofton Park is a beautiful building that we all love, (I used it 30 years ago with my children). However there is subsidence and the upstairs is in need of considerable capital repair works. The downstairs is a thriving library (Nobody is questioning its usage) with a very well used computer suite. I am backing the campaign to 'Save Crofton Park Library' and would prefer to see it made available for use by the voluntary sector and local businesses, when the library is closed (equivalent to five days – including evenings). In times of high job losses and the closure of job centres, the computer suite should be made available to the public for: computer training, job clubs and research Most of us take our computer for granted and under estimate the numbers of local people who do not have access to a computer and need training to use one. I would prefer to see officers work to develop the existing library to fully exploit its facilities and develop some income generation to help keep the library local for local people. Cllr Pauline Morrison |
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