Press Release: Library Workers Accuse Council of Insult to National Libraries Day after Cuts and Closures Announcement

Two events have been called at Minet Library at Myatt’s Park, this Saturday, National Libraries Day, in response to controversial plans by the council to shut Libraries.

Lambeth Council is planning to sell the Minet and Waterloo Libraries.  Funding will also be stopped for Durning, Carnegie and Upper Norwood Library. If community groups do not come forward to take over Durning, Carnegie and Upper Norwood Library, they too may face closure.

Ruth Cashman, Unison Representative for Lambeth Libraries commented;

“Library staff and our Library Friends Groups have been gearing up for a huge membership and publicity drive around National Libraries Day and now we find out the Council has announced plans which threaten half of the borough’s Libraries. Frankly, it’s a slap in the face to library staff, our Friends of Libraries Groups and the communities we serve. We now know exactly what the long-running and costly Cooperative Libraries project was, an attack on a comprehensive public library service across the borough. Labour was reelected boasting that it kept all our libraries open, where is that commitment to the service’s future now?”

Lambeth Council launched the Cooperative Libraries initiative as part of its Cooperative Council Plans. Outlining the plans for the Cooperative Libraries Project in November 2011, Councillor Steve Reed, then Leader of Lambeth Council said;

“I’m excited about the future for Lambeth’s libraries.  While other boroughs have been forced to close libraries thanks to Government funding cuts, thanks to Labour in Lambeth  our library service is now secure for the future.”

UNISON say they will work with the community to fight the Council’s proposals.

The Save Lambeth Libraries campaign have called an event called “Save Our Library Because…” at Minet Library, at 3pm on Saturday 7 February, World Libraries Day. This is followed by a candle lit vigil in Myatt’s Field Park to protest both Library cuts and 50% cuts to the Park, called by the Myatt’s Field Hub.

The Save Lambeth Libraries campaign have called on everyone unable to attend the events to tweet their support for their libraries. Their Facebook Page states

“We are asking people who cannot make it down to the events to tweet a photo to Jane Edbrooke, Cabinet member responsible for Libraries (@JaneEdbrooke) and your local MP with the hashtag ‪#‎SaveLibraries. If you do not have a twitter account, send the photo to us at Save Lambeth Libraries and we will send it out for you. ‬

• Take a big piece of paper
• Write “Save Our Libraries Because…” across the top
• Fill in your reason – it can be something you’ve written, a quote or a picture
• Send us a photo of yourself holding your “Save Our Libraries Because…” page, tweet it, post it…”

ENDS

Download pdf version: PRESS RELEASE Library Workers Accuse Council of Insult to National Libraries Day after Cuts and Closures Announcement

Disability Advice Service

Workers from the Disability Advice Service are being laid off and are lobbying Lambeth Council

Thursday 13th February
6:30pm, Lambeth Town Hall
Called by Lambeth TUC
Let us know you’re coming on facebook

Take 5 mins right now to help us save libraries

Want to help us support our local library service which is under threat from years of budget cuts? Take 5 mins right now. We need your help.

Step 1: Read the Manifesto below

Step 2: Like the  Lambeth Manifesto For Libraries on Facebook to show your support

Step 3: Write to your local Councillor or MP online asking them to support the manifesto.
This takes no more than 5 minutes and is all done online. No stamp-licking required!

Step 4: Share it around friends/family/community groups/trade unions and ask them to do the same.

Step 5: Put our next planning meeting in your diary and help us build the campaign. Thursday 5th Dec, 6:30PM, Vida Walsh Centre, Brixton.

Lambeth Manifesto for Libraries

Lambeth citizens face unprecedented hardship through this period of austerity and in these times we believe more than ever we need access to information, literature and the digital world. The following is what we believe Lambeth’s public library service should provide (as outlined by Voices for the Library):

• A wide-ranging, quality book stock available to borrow without charge.

• Up-to-date ICT that is available to access free of charge and without restrictions, supplemented by support from trained staff.

• Access to e-books remotely and without charge.

• A wide-range of quality online services at no charge.

• A space free from commercial influence.

• Dedicated services for teens.

• A service managed and run by professionals.

• Volunteer opportunities but only as a support to paid staff, not as a substitute.

• Library buildings that provide a modern, welcoming space.

• A service owned by the public, not private companies or a sub-section of the community.

We note that, although Lambeth Council have invested in Library buildings, budgets to run Libraries have been slashed to the point where they can no longer provide the service Lambeth citizens need and deserve.

This manifesto asks local politicians to agree to the following when standing for election next May:

• A commitment to increase book stock to at least the average amount of books of other London authorities – Lambeth Libraries have only 50% of the average London borough book stock

• A commitment to increase staffing to at least the average amount of staff of other London authorities – Lambeth Libraries are proposing to reduce the staffing levels to the lowest in London

• A commitment to increase public IT access to at least the average amount of other London authorities – Lambeth Libraries have only 50% of the average London borough public IT provision

• A commitment to keep all nine public libraries open with no cuts to opening hours

Lambeth residents deserve a Library service equivalent to that provided for residents in neighboring London boroughs with adequate levels of staffing, digital access and books.

Ask your local politicians to commit to the Lambeth Manifesto for Libraries.

Contact: Lambeth Manifesto for Libraries c/o Lambeth UNISON 6a Acre Lane SW2 5SG, lambethsaveourservices@gmail.com

Delegation to Lambeth Council

As well as having a protest outside the council meeting on 20th November we also sent a delegation inside. Pilgrim Tucker from Unite Community read the following statement. It was greeted with cheers from the public gallery and muted murmurs of approval from some councillors

My name is Pilgrim Tucker. I am the co-ordinator of Unite the Union Community membership in London. I am presenting this deputation with members of Unite Community in Lambeth and other housing activists on behalf of many local groups and individuals who are urging Lambeth Council to do more for their residents on the issue of social housing in the borough.

For some time now we have been working alongside tenants, residents and members of the community on the issue of decent, affordable homes for all. What we have found and continue to fight against is the anxiety, uncertainty and insecurity caused by the wretched bedroom tax and benefit caps brought in by this government.

These measures will hit thousands in our community. Across the borough tenants are living with the fear of homelessness because of rent arrears and the possibility of being uprooted from neighbourhoods where they may have lived all their lives.The council should act to prevent this insecurity, by reassuring the tenants that they will not be evicted due to the bedroom tax, and set an example to housing associations that are already starting legal proceedings against tenants.

To add to this council property and land is being sold to private developers leading to a reduction in social housing in the borough. Where new tenancies for social housing for tenants are proposed they include unaffordably high rents and shorter, more insecure tenancies.

The policy of ‘short life’ recall threatens people who have been in their homes since the 1970s. Pensioners are among these people who have maintained social housing that the council abandoned. These people were given categorical promises by their Labour councillors that their right to stay in their homes would be defended!

The council says it is using the proceeds from the sale of council owned land and void properties to refurbish existing council properties, but this is a short sighted approach. We need to stop the sale of existing council housing and go further – to start to build new social housing which is available at rents that ordinary local people can actually afford to pay.

Without such action we will see soaring rents and the destruction of secure tenancies for our communities, and risk the loss of the vibrant diverse population and culture for which Lambeth is rightly celebrated.

To have a decent home is a basic human need without which well-being and progress is not possible. With the increase in soup kitchens and homelessness in Lambeth we call upon this council to:

Make a public commitment that no legal action will be taken against tenants who are in arrears due to the the bedroom tax and benefit cuts.

Take no disciplinary action against staff that refuse to be involved with legal action and evictions against tenants.

Give tenancies to those currently occupying short life co-op housing in Lambeth.

Stop the transfer of council land and property to private developers.

Build 100% council homes at low rents with secure tenancies.

Pressure the government to abolish the bedroom tax, restore benefit cuts and undergo a massive, publicly owned house building programme to end this crisis.

Housing Coops in the Lambeth Weekender

Congratulations to the Lambeth United Housing Cooperative for getting this article in the Lambeth Weekender

Media coverage for 20th November protest

The protest outside the council meeting on 20th November was covered by the Brixton Blog and Brixton Buzz

Save Brixton from Property Developers – Protest this Wednesday

Lots of people will be protesting outside the full council meeting this Wednesday:

• Students & Teachers want Lambeth Council to Stop the Sale of Brixton College to Developers
• Lambeth Housing Activists want the council to Build More Council Housing with no evictions due to Benefits Cuts of Bedroom Tax
• Lambeth United Housing Coop and residents of Cressingham Gardens want the council to stop the sale of Council Property

We’re having a united protest outside the Town Hall from 6pm on Wednesday 20th November

Many people will be meeting outside Lambeth College on Brixton Hill from 5pm to march to Lambeth Town Hall

Please come, and please bring all your friends.

Help Us Advertise 20th November lobby

The is a full council meeting of Lambeth Council on Wednesday 20th November and two campaigns Lambeth SOS supports a holding a joint lobby

Lobby – Save Brixton From Property Developers
No Bedroom Tax Evictions, Save Lambeth College in Brixton, Build More Council Housing
Wednesay 20th November 5:30pm – 7pm
Lambeth Town Hall

We need to make sure people know about it over the coming week. We’re doing the following to publicise it

• Postering Streatham shops – Wednesday 13th November – 6:30pm – Meet at the Telford Avenue Bus Garage on Streatham Hill
• Postering South Lambeth Road shops – Time TBC
• Stall – Friday 15th November – 12noon – Outside the Barrier Block on Somerlyton Road
• Stall – Saturday 16th November – 12 noon – Streatham High Road (opposite Odeon, outside Sainsburys)

If you can help out with any of these please contact us, and include your phone number in the email (please don’t just turn up as they may be changed at short notice)

Soft copy publicity is available here. If you want hard copy publicity please contact us

Please tell everyone you know about the 20th November lobby. We need it to be big if we are to convince the council that everyone deserves a decent home and a decent education

Homes for Need Not Greed

Guest post from Ian Townson

How things have changed indeed….

When I first came to Brixton in 1974 I squatted in abandoned Lambeth Council property on Railton Road. Eventually as a gay community we squatted 12 houses back to back on Railton and Mayall roads with a communal garden in between. All of the houses belonged to Lambeth Council.

In those days the Housing Corporation was set up specifically to fund various organisations providing social housing with a guarantee of cheap rents and secure tenancies. Often as an interim measure pending redevelopment the council would grant squatters short life tenancies. I am not sure how this came about but the council negotiated with the Solon Housing Association to take over the properties we occupied as well as others in the area for redevelopment. Having done this, far from evicting squatters to take vacant possession of the properties, we were decanted as single people into hard to let flats while also becoming part of the self-managed Brixton Housing Cooperative. During that period the architects responsible for redesigning the new dwellings liaised with the decanted squatters who were encouraged to design their own living space. Where to put bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, lounges etc. Eventually everyone moved en masse back in to the new flats and they are still there today as secure tenants.

The question raised by all of the above is this – why can’t Lambeth Council make similar arrangements now as they did then? Instead of evicting squatters as in Rushcroft Road and potentially elsewhere why could they not have negotiated a different route instead of flogging off homes to profit-hungry developers whose main aim is to attract a more cash worthy clientele. Social cleansing of ordinary working people, the poor and disadvantaged is abhorrent and should have no place in a so-called civilised society. It seems that the requirements of capitalism and the profit motive take precedence over the right to a decent roof over our heads. Without secure homes, a basic need, progress is not possible. With the bedroom tax, welfare cuts and increased housing costs I can see a situation where things will become as bad as they are in America where the homeless have been forced to occupy public land and build tented cities to live in.

HOMES FOR NEED NOT GREED!

The Cooperative Council and the Housing Coops

A decent crowd turned up to the protest against the eviction of housing cooperatives last Thursday, possibly inspired by the publicity we got in SW Londoner.

Jules, from the Lambeth United Housing Cooperative, stressed the demonstration was important. The majority of remaining housing coops lie in the Clapham Town ward. The local councillors (Haselden and Wellbelove) promised to support the housing coops, a promise they then broke. Only Cllr Helen O’Malley, since deselected, has kept up her support

The venue of the question time has special significance. The Omnibus centre was saved from being sold off by various figures including local councillors, Mark Thomas (who sems quite supportive) and local author John O’Farrell (who failed to reply to numerous emails about the evictions). At the time the building was saved Cllr Haselden said: “we had to make the council see behind the pounds, shillings and pence” – yet he was quite happy to sell out residents of nearly 40 years standing

The atmosphere outside the meeting was great, the atmosphere inside the meeting less so. Cllr Lib Peck kept on saying the council couldn’t manage without the money that would be raised by confiscating the houses from the housing coop.

The fact Cllr Peck didn’t budge at the meeting wasn’t a suprise, but we do know Lambeth Council fears us. We’ve postponed the eviction of Charmaine Lodge and stopped the eviction of Jimmy Rogers through public pressure. We now need more public pressure to ensure housing coops continue to provide affordable accommodation in Lambeth