Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries

Collated : Gloucestershire’s evidence submitted to Parliamentary inquiry into library cuts

johanna bo anderson — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:17:46 +0000

For ease of access we have collated here all of the submissions made by the people of Gloucestershire to the Parliamentary inquiry into library cuts

For evidence submitted by Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries click here

For evidence submitted by Lechlade and District Civic Society click here

For evidence submitted by John Holland on behalf of former librarians of Gloucestershire Libraries click here

For evidence submitted by Lechlade Town Council Library Working Group click here

For evidence submitted by Gloucestershire Author, John Dougherty click here

For evidence submitted by Newnham Library Support Group click here

For evidence submitted by Public Interest Lawyers who successfully represented Gloucestershire and Somerset library users in a High Court library cuts legal challenge click here

..and finally, a rather bizarre submission made by Gloucestershire County Council in which they talk about what they should have done, as if they did do, but didn’t do….hence their cuts being ruled “unlawful” and “bad government”in the High Court is here

Mr Hunt – action is overdue

christianenicholson — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:33:56 +0000

John Holland writes

I have no confidence at all that this government, whose responsibility it is to superintend public library services, will ever take action against irresponsible local authorities who have already, or in the case of Gloucestershire intend to continue to ruin their library services. However, I’m giving the old hunt another chance. I thought I’d have a go, this time, on the basis of cuts to the book (stock) fund. I sent this to the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport today (22/2/12).

Dear Mr Hunt,

I wish to draw your attention to the low level of spending on books and other media by Gloucestershire County Council. The 1964 Public Libraries & Museums Act specifies that councils must provide comprehensive and efficient library services. In Section 7 (2), it stipulates further that an important part of comprehensiveness is the adequacy of its book stock.

In Gloucestershire the spend on book and other stock was reduced by more than half in 2009-10, and has not recovered. Indeed the council has already stated in answer to a question at a Cabinet Meeting that it will remain less than half at least until 2014-15. Yet the council has never consulted on these cuts to the stock fund. Indeed has only ever provided the figures in response to questions. Its “new” library strategy published in January this year, and alarmingly like the November 2010 strategy declared unlawful in the high court in November 2011, has no reference to the stock fund, or any justification for its continued underfunding.

Let’s look at the facts. Gloucestershire County Council had since the 1990s been one of the lowest spenders per head of population on library services of any shire county. Its annual spend on books and other stock until 2009-10 was about 1 million per annum, placing it annually in the lowest quartile of shire county spenders per head of population. Spending reached its zenith in 2007-8 when it spent £1,221,223 on stock (GCC’s own figure). The 2008-9 spend was £902,012. (GCC’s own figure)

As cuts began to bite its spend in 2009-10 was reduced to £409,130; and in 2010-11, the latest available official spend figure, it was £351,935 (all GCC’s own figures) – less than a third of the 2007-8 spend.

As I mentioned above, according to an answer by Council Leader Mark Hawthorne to a question by Councillor Jeremy Hilton at the 20 January 2012 Cabinet Meeting, the spend will be “in the region of £1.4 million” over the next three financial years (ie to 2014-15). That’s not £1.4 million per year but approximately £466,700 per year. For this exchange, please see page 2 of Members’ Questions here- http://glostext.gloucestershire.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=6324

Per head of population this equates to £0.79 pence per year. Ask the DCMS officials to look at CIPFA stats and find a spend so low by any other shire county and they will fail. A spend of that kind cannot be considered to be the basis of a book stock which could be termed “comprehensive”.

It is worth bearing in mind that lack of spending on books is cumulative. In other words, GCC will have failed to buy from 2009-10, when huge cuts began, to 2014-15 GCC a total of about £3 million pounds worth of books and other media for the people of Gloucestershire. This is a huge shortfall. And all this without any consultation on the stock fund.

I attach some comparative figures from CIPFA*. As you can see, GCC had already made cuts of over £1.7 million pounds (nearly 19%) to its libraries budget before 2011-12. It now proposes a further cut of £1.8 million (a further 25%).

I am therefore asking that you, as Secretary of State, to undertake your responsibilities under the 1964 Act, as so clearly outlined by Judge McKenna in the November 2011Judicial Review. If you need to, please check these figures with Gloucestershire County Council, ask for an explanation and, when no reasonable explanation is forthcoming, please commence an official Inquiry into the management of public libraries in Gloucestershire.

Yours sincerely,

John Holland

*email FoGL if you’d like the figures.

Ed Vaizey Ignores Hundreds : Formal Complaint submitted

johanna bo anderson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:15:32 +0000

We at Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries are dismayed that, almost two months after sending two letters (20/12/11) to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, we have not received a reply.

The first letter was sent following following Gloucestershire County Council’s defeat in the High Court. Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries wrote to Mr Vaizey asking him to address our specific local concerns

http://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/mr-vaizey-you-knew-you-did-nothing-now-what-friends-of-gloucestershire-libraries/

Since we sent this letter Gloucestershire County Council have announced a cuts package remarkably similar to the unlawful one and are rushing through a hurried consultation, a consultation that has attracted much criticism from residents of Gloucestershire.

http://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/gccs-new-consultation-survey-baffling-manipulative-and-full-of-assumptions-and-loaded-questions/

We also sent an open letter (with the comments this received) about the devastating and wide spread attack on a much valued and loved public library network, that was signed by 456 organizations, campaign groups, authors, celebrities, librarians and library users from across the country.

http://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/joint-open-letter-to-ed-vaizey-from-library-user-groups-please-consider-signing-and-circulating/

Again, we are yet to receive a response, or even an acknowledgement, from Mr Vaizey.

Vaizey has failed to respond to, or acknowledge, either of our letters. It is not only very rude but we believe it is a gross dereliction of his duties. We have therefore made a formal complaint to Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt MP and have bought this to the attention of John Whittingdale MP, Chair of the CMS Select Committee inquiry into library cuts and to all the committee members

We are at a total loss as to what to do to get answers to our questions and to say that we feel utterly let down is an understatement.

Doctor! Doctor! Has GCC’s Chief Exec got amnesia?

johanna bo anderson — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:09:01 +0000

The Chief Executive of Gloucestershire County Council, Mr Bungard, has appeared in a piece featured in the BBC News today where he talks about the cuts GCC are implementing. Rather bizarrely he states,

It has been a really tough year but we have actually stayed on track, I think we have done it through flexibility, listening a lot, not believing we knew everything at the start and we were prepared to find different ways

We are left wondering whether he has spent the last year asleep!!!?? GCC certainly weren’t listening to the electorate who signed a 16,000 strong petition against the devastating and disproportionate library cuts (the 2nd largest campaign this county has ever seen). They weren’t listening when Gloucestershire residents warned GCC that they were in breach of the law and were walking the county into a costly court case. They did not listen to the overwhelming negative response they received during the consultation process. If they had behaved as Mr Bungard seems to think they did then the last year would have been very different.

“Flexibility“?, the council certainly cannot claim to be “flexible” as they arrogantly and stubbornly bulldozed through deeply unpopular plans. Contrary to Mr Bungards claims, they did, and still do, behave like they know everything as is evident in their remarkably-similar-to-the-old-plans “new” library closure and cuts plans they have recently announced, following the complete quashing of their previous plans in the High Court.

Mr Bungard seems remarkably self-congratulatory for someone who is part of an authority that was ruled to be guilty of “bad government” and a “substantive breach” of the law not six months ago by a high court judge.

I, for one, sent Mr Bungard several letters last year detailing my concerns about the county council’s approach and I am yet to receive a single answer. That is not listening Mr Bungard.

Make sure your views are heard

christianenicholson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:48:25 +0000

John Holland writes

The official “new” library strategy consultation process is now underway and runs until 11 March. Full details of the online questionnaire, the email consultation helpline and the times and venues for the “roadshows” are on the GCC website at

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/libraries2012

For the online questionnaire use the link at the top of the page. Printed copies are also available in libraries. This is a dreadful questionnaire of huge complexity, filled with loaded questions. There have been rumours that FOGL were involved in designing it!! Nothing could be further from the truth. It is designed by a company called Vector, who are being paid £60,000 by the council to manage the consultation process. Because of our concerns and the many complaints, we have received, we have asked the council to withdraw this questionnaire. If you do complete one, and find the questions unanswerable, make sure you use the white free text boxes to express your views.

You can also use the new email address libraries2012@gloucestershire.gov.uk for your questions and comments. I strongly recommend that you use it. If you are making a comment, make sure you say that you are submitting it as a comment as part of the formal consultation process. Although you can ask questions too, try not to include both questions and comments in the same email, for fear that your comment will only be logged as question!

Lastly, ”roadshows” start tomorrow (Wed 8 Feb in Eastgate Mall in Gloucester). There are 15 roadshows during February, so see if you can get to one. We do not know what format they will take but strongly recommend that you go along and make your views know. Councillor Noble won’t be there this time, as she has been dropped from the whole process. Remember that it doesn’t matter which “roadshow” you attend, they have to record your views about any library or part of the service.

If you can use all three means of consultation please do!

Good luck.

John

Evidence Published : CMS Select Committee Investigation into Library Cuts

johanna bo anderson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:11:33 +0000

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has today published written evidence submitted to its inquiry into library cuts. It can be read here

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmcumeds/writev/library/library.pdf

As well as our own submission, submissions were sent by a group of former Gloucestershire Librarians, Flying Author John Dougherty, three stonking offerings were submitted by Lechlade and District Civic Society, Lechlade Town Council Library Working Group and Newnham Library support Group. To our delight Public Interest Lawyers, the firm who won the judicial review for Gloucestershire residents, have also sent a strongly worded submission. The Society of Authors quoted our letter to Ed Vaizey at length in their submission and our judicial review and the judges ruling are quoted many times in other submissions.

We are very proud of the impact that Gloucestershire residents have had on the national dialogue regarding unprecedented, eye-watering library cuts. Let’s hope that, unlike GCC, the Select Committee listen to us. Thank you to everyone who made submissions and those who supported us with the JR.

Gloucestershire County Council also submitted evidence but it is rather baffling as it just seems to refer to duties they were ruled to be in breach of in the high court. One wonders after reading it why they did not take these duties into consideration when drawing up their plans. Why did they insist on wasting our time and money by fighting in the high court instead of doing things properly? Maybe their submission is so weak because they were distracted by their urgency to get the “new” plans out and the consultation started.

The investigation begins tomorrow with oral evidence from The Reading Agency director Miranda McKearney, Abigail Barker of Voices for the Library, The Library Campaign, and Sue Charteris, author of the Charteris report, proceedings can be viewed live online via www.parliamentlive.tv.

Tuffley Library Support Group – we need your support

demelzajade — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:21:47 +0000

Tuffley Library Support Group is a group of local people who care about the future of Tuffley Library. We are supported by the Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries.

Right now we are looking to increase our numbers at a crucial time for the library.

We want to make sure that Tuffley Library is kept as a local, easily accessible library. The draft “new” library strategy, currently out for consultation, is proposing a statutory library for Tuffley. It is to be branded as a “Partnership Library”. We have concerns about who the partners may be and how such an arrangement might work. We are also worried that Gloucestershire County Council might wish to re-locate the library to smaller accommodation in a remote location.

If anybody is interested in helping to ensure the future of Tuffley Library, please contact Sarah or Graham Howard at

Tel 01452 313922

Email grahamhoward1942@talktalk.net

Call me Irresponsible – a meeting with Culture Minister Ed Vaizey

demelzajade — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:49:53 +0000

John Holland writes

The Oxford Online Dictionary defines “irresponsible” as “a person …not showing a proper sense of responsibility”. I had a meeting with one last week. His name is Ed Vaizey, and he is the Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries. Vaizey is responsible to the Secretary Of State, Jeremy Hunt, for superintending public libraries. Yet both Vaizey and Hunt have not lifted a finger to stop the widespread cutting of public library services in many parts of the country, notably Gloucestershire.

Our Children’s Laureate, Julia Donaldson had, through her MP, set up a meeting in London with him last week and kindly invited library campaigners Alan Gibbons (children’s author and founder of Campaign for the Book), Gary Green (librarian representing the Voice for the Library) and me (representing FOGL) to join her to put the case for public libraries to Vaizey.

This we duly did. I gave many examples of the cuts which have already taken place here, and the further draconian cuts proposed by Gloucestershire County Council; and how I had written to Mr Vaizey about them time and time again only to hear back that his officials are “monitoring” the situation.

Our main question was, “What will it take for you to intervene and launch an inquiry into savage cuts proposed by a local authority? This is, after all, Mr Vaizey, your responsibility.”

In the 45 minutes of the meeting. Vaizey shifted his ground constantly, showing time and time again his lack of conviction, or even interest, in the serious plight of the public library service.

He claimed that-

He is very optimistic about libraries and does not agree that any library services are in crisis.
There are many situations in which it is appropriate to close libraries.
Local authorities are responsible for services to the people who elect them.
There is no default setting for launching an inquiry in library cuts. He would only consider this if his officials advised him – and they apparently have not.
He is not embarrassed by local people, such as FOGL, superintending their own library services by launching Judicial Review court cases.
Communities funding and running their own libraries is a good idea. He wants to see more of it.

So, what do we learn from this? That Vaizey is happy to suckle at the teat of Cameron’s big society, and pass the buck to local councils or his advisers. He is not getting involved. A cross-party Select Committee of MPs is currently looking into library closures and Vaizey’s role in relation to them. We can only hope he is rebuked and told to act.

We in FOGL have previously accused him of leaving his convictions at the door on entering office. I can assure all FOGL members that, when it comes to acting to save public library services, this is a man without conviction. An irresponsible man.

National Libraries Day in Gloucestershire

demelzajade — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:48:55 +0000

Today we celebrated National Libraries Day with a programme of events arranged by members of the public in libraries across the county. Lots of fun was had with storytimes, book readings, author Q and As, games, face painting, songs and craft activities, and the brilliant ‘Flying Authors’ who did a fantastic job dashing around twenty-six of the county’s libraries!

Q&A with Flying Authors Cindy Jefferies and Seb Goffe at Minchinhampton

Flying Author Claire Harrison and the star of her book, Peggy, with young readers at Hesters Way

Stories and song with Flying Author John Dougherty at Minchinhampton

Elmer stories and craft at Tuffley

Flying Author Agent Green, Dragon Whisperer at Moreton Library

Throughout the day, some of the Flying Authors were tweeting updates of their library visits. You can read some of their tweets here or on #NLD12. If anyone has photos of the day in their local library please send them in (foc.cheltlib@gmail.com).

This was a day for celebration, but it is also worth reflecting that if it wasn’t for campaigning by us library users, many of the libraries where events took place today would have closed their doors for good last year – some still might, including the library with the highest usage per head of population in the county, Minchinhampton, where people of all ages took part in a vibrant programme of events today.

It is also a great shame that Gloucestershire County Council chose not to celebrate the library service and its wonderful staff by participating in National Libraries Day – all events were organised by members of the public. A huge thank you to Jo Kurlbaum for recruiting authors and organising visits, to all the local organisers, and to all the Flying Authors for taking part!

As well as events in Gloucestershire, people have been out in force across the country celebrating their local library and all that it offers their community. Children’s Laureate, library advocate, and FoGL supporter Julia Donaldson penned a special poem for the day:

Everyone is welcome to walk through the door.
It really doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.
There are books in boxes and books on shelves.
They’re free for you to borrow, so help yourselves.

Come and meet your heroes, old and new,
From William the Conqueror to Winnie the Pooh.
You can look into the Mirror or read The Times,
Or bring along a toddler to chant some rhymes.

The librarian’s a friend who loves to lend,
So see if there’s a book that she can recommend.
Read that book, and if you’re bitten
You can borrow all the other ones the author’s written.

Are you into battles or biography?
Are you keen on gerbils or geography?
Gardening or ghosts? Sharks or science fiction?
There’s something here for everyone, whatever your addiction.

There are students revising, deep in concentration,
And school kids doing projects, finding inspiration.
Over in the corner there’s a table with seating,
So come along and join in the Book Club meeting.

Yes, come to the library! Browse and borrow,
And help make sure it’ll still be here tomorrow.

GCC respond to criticisms of consultation survey

demelzajade — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:02:24 +0000

After receiving many messages from people angry at what they saw as leading or loaded questions, assumptions, potential to manipulate data to support current proposals and needless complexity in GCC’s new library strategy consultation, we wrote to GCC outlining these concerns.

Here is their reply:

Thank you for your comments on the libraries consultation.

I will try to address all your points, but think it is important to stress that the questionnaire is only one of the channels we are using to gather feedback on our proposals. All consultation channels have limitations and this is why the Council is seeking views through:

An online survey available at www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/libraries2012
Paper survey available in all libraries
Telephone survey of 1,000 randomly selected Gloucestershire households
Fourteen road shows across Gloucestershire
Workshops with small groups including vulnerable members of the community

While the survey does require respondents to consider some challenging issues, I do ’not accept that the survey itself is very complex. It is a comprehensive survey that seeks to understand both people’s usage of libraries and their views on the Council’s proposals. For that reason, it is relatively long. I appreciate that you have expertise in this area, but the Council has commissioned a professional consultation company (Vector Research) to design and analyze the survey and this work has been done in good faith with every attempt being made to understand the views of Gloucestershire residents.

Given the complexity and length of the strategy, needs assessment and ECIA , we have divided the survey into themed sections (Library usage, strategy, volunteers and community libraries, mobile libraries, and summary). The online version is split into several pages with 3-5 questions per page. At the roadshows, the survey will be accompanied by display boards that again try to summarise the strategy in a clear and simple presentation.

On your specific point about asking people to weigh priorities in the strategy (Q7, 9 and 14 of the paper survey), we will monitor the response rate to these questions and we will provide further clarification if we see people are encountering significant problems. This will be completed as part of the weekly review meetings we are holding to look at information gathered from consultation.

On the issue of literacy levels, as I have stated above, the Council is using several consultation channels, including roadshow events where support will be available to help people complete the survey. Staff from Vector Research will be specifically recruiting members of the public at roadshow events to complete the survey and will be on hand to help respondents to overcome any barriers that could prevent them from participating (e.g. literacy levels, translation needs) .

The survey is not designed to generate data to support the draft proposals. The questions are, of course, based on the proposals but respondents are clearly and consistently given the opportunity to disagree with the proposals and provide other information or views they consider to be relevant. I also cannot agree with your assertion that people are “disinclined to complete free text boxes”. In the 2010/11 consultation, over 3000 comments about the impact of the changes, and over 2900 general comments about the proposals were generated.

On question 19, we are asking people to consider the impact of a reduction or increase of hours and we have clearly provided as much information as possible on what changes are possible. I do not agree that “it is likely that a reader would assume these libraries would be staying where they were” given that the summary document Library Proposals 2012 clearly states there is the possibility of co-location.

I hope that this has addressed the concerns that you have raised. Please rest assured that we have carefully considered the approach that we have taken to this consultation so that we can establish a clear picture of how the public view our proposals and their potential impact.

GCC have also said that anyone who wishes to make comments beyond the consultation survey, or comment in a way that the consultation survey doesn’t allow, should email: libraries2012@gloucestershire.gov.uk