Category Archives: Libraries

Marathon challenge still on despite foot of snow in Slovakia

Posted on March 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Paul Lorber is on schedule to run his 1st ever Marathon on Sunday in Bratislava despite a foot of snow covering parts of Slovakia last weekend.

Paul is going to his birth place to run a marathon in support of Friends of Barham Library who want to reopen the closed library in Barham Park Wembley.
 

Paul Lorber in front of Barham Park library in the snow

Paul Lorber is campaigning to re-open BarhamPark library

Friends of Barham Library have now been campaigning for two years for their Library and currently run a Volunteer Library and Bookshop at 428 High Road, Wembley which is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from around 12 noon to 5pm.
 
As of last Sunday Paul had raised just over £1,000 to get him to the half way mark in his Marathon fundraising target of £2,000.
 
Paul is being trained by Wembley’s own Ironman Peter Corcoran a veteran of numerous Marathon and Ironman Challenges. Peter intends to get Paul through the 26 mile run and said:

Paul has been training very hard through the long winter and is determined to finish his Marathon especially since the organisers have changed the route so that it now passes his old home in Bratislava. 

Peter is urging all supporters of the Library Campaign to rally round and sponsor Paul by making a donation via www.virginmoneygiving.com/paullorber.
 
Friends of Barham Library have launched a fun competition urging supporters to guess Paul’s finishing time. The ten people guessing a time closest to Paul’s actual time will be able to pick a FREE book of their choice from Friends of Barham Library large collection in their Wembley shop.
 
More information on the Friends of Barham Library facebook page.

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Lib Dem budget for Brent listens to residents

Posted on February 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

Brent Liberal Democrats last night set out budget proposals that listen to local residents’ concerns.

In contrast the Labour Leader called for community involvement in the budget but endorsed proposals which maintain controversial cuts to libraries, street cleaning and school crossing patrols.

The Liberal Democrat Alternative 2013/14 Budget

Libraries

Staff remove boxes from Kensal Rise library

Labour’s library closure programme including striping Kensal Rise library of its books and computers in the middle of the night

Labour closed half of Brent’s libraries, broke promises to work with volunteer library campaigners, engineered the transfer of Cricklewood  and Kensal Rise libraries to All Souls College, sold off Tokyngton library and blocked the return of library services to Barham Park and Preston

Liberal Democrats will invest an additional £400,000 per year to support library volunteers across the borough, including access to professional support, catalogues etc. and to finance plans to re-open closed libraries

Parking

Labour has hiked parking charges – twice in four months for parking permit holders – introduced parking meters in roads where they didn’t previously operate and is hitting older and poorer residents without internet access especially hard with punitive parking fees.

Liberal Democrats will freeze April’s planned parking charge increases, reverse January’s parking permit increase and keep daily visitor parking permits at £1.

We will start a wide-range review of parking tariffs and penalty charges in Brent to ensure they meet the needs of residents and businesses in Brent – ending the current policies which discourage people from shopping locally.

Labour’s proposal for a 20p rate for the first 15 minutes at parking meters is a welcome acknowledgement of the problems caused by their parking policies, but does nothing to help parking permit holders.

Highways repairs

Labour has failed to maintain our roads and (especially) our pavements to the standards that local residents expect.

Liberal Democrats will invest an extra £500,000 over and above the administration’s budget proposals to mend potholes and resurface pavements, keeping pedestrians safer and reducing damage to Brent residents’ cars.
 
Street cleaning

Big pile of bags of rubbish on the pavement

Labour’s cuts to street cleaning mean that rubbish is piling up on our streets

Labour has cut street sweeping and graffiti removal, leaving Brent’s streets dirtier than ever and local people fed up with the build-up of rubbish on their streets.

Liberal Democrats will invest £250,000 to clear the backlog of Labour’s rubbish and pilot more effective ways of working.

CCTV

Labour has failed to provide funding for the renewal and extension of Brent’s CCTV system. Liberal Democrats will restart the CCTV installation programme for local High Streets and hotspots (costing £135,000).

Festivals

Labour removed the Navratri grant and abolished the budget for Christmas, Eid, St Patrick’s and other local cultural festivals and celebrations.

Liberal Democrats will reinstate £115,000 funding for festivals which bring the community together.

Tree planting

Liberal Democrats will invest in a £50,000 tree planting programme, making our streets and public places greener and healthier.

School Crossing Patrols

Labour has let down parents and children by stealthily removing school crossing patrols from our schools.

Liberal Democrats will reverse Labour’s cuts and recruit new school crossing patrols when vacancies occur at an annual cost of £60,000.

Total additional spending: £1,797,000 (£862,000 recurrent, £935,000 one-off) 

The Liberal Democrat budget proposals are funded by:

Reduction in size of Corporate Management Team
The move into the Civic Centre, reduction in the overall size of the council and changes in role means that the Corporate Management Team can be slimmed down, saving £518,000.

Restructure of Customer and Community Engagement Directorate
Savings from ward working admin (while maintaining the project budget), communications, the festivals unit and mayoral support will save £344,000.

To fund one-off expenditure the Lib Dems will reduce the size of three very large uncommitted earmarked reserves by £935,000 (transformation reserve: £450,000, redundancy and restructuring reserve: £420,000, remuneration strategy reserve: £65,000). This will leave £4.25m in these reserves plus over £12m in the general reserve to cover contingencies and risks.

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Labour councillors block Sudbury residents’ offer to bring back library to Barham Park

Posted on February 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

Labour Councillors – including lead councillor for Neighbourhoods James Powney who led the closure of half of Brent’s libraries – have voted to exclude a locally-run library charity from bringing book lending and library activities back to the old Library building in Barham Park.

Picture of bookshelves and posters at Barham Volunteer Library

Friends of Barham library currently run their volunteer library in Wembley but want to return to the library’s traditional home in Barham park

Instead they chose to hand over the building to an organisation based in Kensington and Chelsea with no connection with the borough.

The Labour councillors backed a bid from ACAVA (Association for Cultural Advancement Through Visual Art) which offered a much smaller rent than council officers estimated was required for the former Barham Library building and other parts of the Barham Park complex.

Barham Park and the associated buildings were gifted to the council by Titus Barham in 1936 for the recreation of the public. Titus Barham, from the famous Express Dairies family, was a generous benefactor who donated large sums of money to local causes including Wembley Hospital and Sudbury Tennis Club. He wanted to ensure that local people would benefit and enjoy his home and his gardens after his passing.

The buildings have provided local services to local people ever since. This included Barham Library from 31 May 1962 until its closure by Labour Councillors in October 2011. Labour kept the building empty and derelict for over 16 months despite an offer from local charity Friends of Barham Library to pay rent and run a volunteer library at no cost to Brent Council taxpayers.

There were shambolic scenes at Brent Town Hall when the Barham Park Trust Committee met on Wednesday 13 February. Just hours before the meeting council officers had to issue a last minute ‘supplementary report’ to correct errors in the original paperwork. Labour councillors were summoned to a secret meeting behind closed doors 30 minutes before the start of the committee meeting. Following this local residents who had came to speak about the recommendations on the agenda were denied the right to speak by Labour Councillor Ruth Moher who chaired the meeting.

The Council failed to meet a commitment to the Charity Commission to consult current and prospective future users of the building about what they wanted to see the buildings used for. Evidence suggests most Sudbury residents want to see the return of a local library against the wishes of Labour councillors.

Councillor Paul Lorber, who represents Sudbury ward where Barham Park library was located, said:

This is another shameful episode in the story of Labour’s library closure policy. Local people are seeing community assets being taken away from them by Labour Councillors who simply do not care. Titus Barham would turn in his grave at the thought of how Labour Councillors are destroying his generous gift to the people of Wembley.

One of those refused the right to speak was Vi Steel, the Chair of Brent Pensioners Forum and a Sudbury resident. She wanted to ask the Committee to think of all the young and older people who have lost out as a result of the closure of Barham Library and would benefit from the return of book lending to the area.

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Labour’s shambolic management of Willesden Library redevelopment

Posted on February 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

Brent Council announced yesterday yet another delay to the Willesden Library redevelopment plan, which is now running at least eight months behind schedule. Just one day before the Planning Committee was due to take its crucial decisions, the planning application was pulled from the agenda.

Willesden Green Library Credit: failing_angel http://www.flickr.com/photos/11561957@N06/

According to the original timetable, considered by Labour councillors at an Executive meeting in January 2012, planning permission for the demolition of the existing library and the old library and construction of a new library and flats should have been granted in July 2012.

Building work was due to begin on site last October. However the council was forced to withdraw its original plan after an outcry over Labour’s plan to demolish the old Willesden Library building. A new planning application was submitted which has been beset by controversy and further delays.

Councillor Paul Lorber, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said:

This last minute delay is the latest episode in a long and costly saga. It now threatens to become a complete shambles and an embarrassment to the council.

Right from January 2012, when the Liberal Democrats called in for scrutiny the Executive’s decision to proceed with the project the Liberal Democrats have expressed concern about the way this project has been handled.

We queried the lack of detail in the proposals submitted to members, the way the project was managed and the poor consultation strategy. Sadly we seem to have been proved right on all counts.”

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From home to home to raise money for Barham library

Posted on February 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

Sudbury councillor and Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Councillor Paul Lorber, will run his first ever marathon in Bratislava, the capital of Slovak Republic and place of his birth, to raise funds for Friends of Barham Library.

Paul Lorber and Peter Corcoran training outside Wembley Stadium in the snow

Peter Corcoran and Councillor Paul Lorber have been putting in the hard miles

It will be his first marathon and he will run it with Wembley’s own Ironman Peter Corcoran.

Councillor Paul Lorber came to the UK with his parents in October 1968 following the Russian Invasion of Czechoslovakia and the ending of the ‘Prague Spring’. Paul has lived in Brent since 1969 initially in Willesden and more recently in Sudbury and attended a secondary school in Kilburn.

Paul has been training with Peter Corcoran for some time and it was Peter who persuaded him that “he had a marathon of 26 miles in him” – despite only managing 14 miles as his longest non stop distance to date. As the Bratislava Marathon is on 24 March 2013 Paul still has lots more training to do.

Councillor Lorber said:

Reviving the Library in Barham Park is such a fantastic project that I am willing to go to any lengths to achieve our objective. We have a fantastic group of volunteer and massive support from local people who have donated books and wish us well.

Doing my bit and taking on the Marathon challenge is the least I can do under the circumstances.

Peter Corcoran, who has competed in Ironman triathlons across the world, said:

The Bratislava Marathon is probably the last event in Europe I would have picked for a first-timer, given its tough winter training and five hour time limit.

Paul has trained very hard with quite a few icy midnight and 3am runs to accommodate his busy schedule. If only Paul only been born in Barcelona as the marathon there would have allowed him two more hours to complete the course and all summer to train.

Training Paul has not been plain sailing with his tendency to run too fast in the early kilometres. He will need to curb his speed or he faces a real chance of getting caught out over the long 26 miles distance.

I hope people will see his wonderful effort to date as inspirational and also take part in similar sporting events.

To sponsor Paul send a cheque payable to ‘Friends of Barham Library‘ to Paul Lorber at 17 Stapenhill Road Wembley HA0 3JF. Donations can also be left at the Barham Volunteer Library at 428 High Road Wembley HA9 6AH or in Daniels Estate Agents just a few doors down at 438 High Road Wembley.

You can also sign the petition to support the return of Barham Library to Barham Park.

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Brent Libraries: independent report reveals damning statistics about Labour council’s performance

Posted on December 20, 2012 | 1 Comment

Detailed figures released by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (Cipfa) show that, following Labour’s library closures, Brent’s library service compares shockingly poorly with those run by similar councils.

Cipfa’s key findings include:

  • Brent has fewer libraries (six) than any other comparative council. The average number of libraries is 11, one fewer than Brent had before Labour closed Barham Park, Cricklewood, Kensal Rise, Neasden, Preston and Tokyngton libraries (page 4)
  • The picture in Brent is even worse when you take population into account. Out of 16 similar authorities Brent has the fourth highest population but the fewest libraries (p4) meaning it is by far the worst council for the number of libraries per 100,000 population (page 8).
  • Brent has a low proportion of active borrowers compared to other councils. According to Cipfa: “Brent is in the bottom quartile suggesting that the library service does not engage as well with the population when compared to the other authorities” (page 4).
  • Brent spends about 25% less per person on libraries than the average similar council. Labour in Brent cutting funding for our library service more and faster than other similar councils in London. It has cut twice as much per person from the library budget compared to the average (page 5). It has also cut more staff than most councils (page 21).

Paul Lorber, who is Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition on Brent Council and a volunteer library campaigner, said:

We all know that Labour councillors don’t care about our library service and now we now have the statistical proof. These independent figures lay bare how Labour has let down local residents, library users and staff.

It is clearer than ever that we need a radical change of policy in order to rescue the library service. This should include support for the groups striving to re-open the libraries that Labour has closed.

Other findings of the report include:

  • Brent makes much less use of volunteers than other similar councils (page 5) – as the volunteer library supporters who comprise the Friends of Barham park, Cricklewood, Kensal Rise and Preston libraries know only too well.
  • Brent libraries receive fewer visits and issue fewer books than libraries in other similar areas (page 6).
  • There was a dramatic drop in library visits from 6,630 per 100,000 population between 2011/11 (when twelve libraries were open) and 4,827 per 100,000 population in 2011/12 (when six libraries were closed half way through the year) (line graph, page 11).
  • Brent has a smaller book stock than almost all similar councils and is worst at supplying requested books within a week (page 6).
  • The busiest library in Brent is Willesden Green, but it still issues fewer books than similar busy libraries in other areas (page 8).
  • The Brent libraries website is poorly used compared to those elsewhere (page 12).
  • Brent provides one third fewer computer terminals per head than similar councils (page 13).

Cipfa’s statisticians sourced figures for library usage and expenditure from each council and compared councils with similar characteristics with each other. Brent’s comparison group comprises the London boroughs of Ealing, Haringey, Lewisham, Lambeth, Southwark, Hounslow, Merton, Croydon, Greenwich, Wandsworth, Enfield, Waltham Forest, Hackney, Redbridge and Newham.

The report can be downloaded from the Cipfa website [PDF].

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