Tell Lambeth Council what you want from the Durning Library in the future

I've not posted on libraries since Vauxhall Civic Society began a campaign in mid-March to persuade Lambeth Council to provide facts and figures on budgets re. libraries in Lambeth.  Lambeth accidentally turned the Society's general correspondence/questions into a Freedom of Information Request, and Kate Hoey appeared to back the Vauxhall Society's request for information).  However, it transpired that the Council had made an "administrative error" re. the FOI request, and so reclassified their correspondence as a "General Enquiry" which would receive a response by 25th March.  On the 25th March (presumably no longer bound by the more stringent requirements of the FOI request), the Council promised to publish the requested information as part of a "general information hand out" promised for April.  The contents to be released would need to be confirmed at a 4th April meeting with the new Head of Libraries in Lambeth, John Pateman.  Unfortunately, John Pateman was in office for precisely... 1 day... before resigning on account of "a sudden family crisis".  So it must have been quite a surprise for the Vauxhall Society to receive last week (now May!) some of the information they requested.

Unfortunately, I'm not at all clear quite where the information they requested is located...  There are some general documents available at the bottom of "The Facts" page here.  Perhaps that's what's meant.  The Vauxhall Society say that the budget figures have still to go online, so that will be interesting and I await their analysis with interest.  Vauxhall Society have pointed readers to various pages on the Lambeth Council website that mention a new "Libraries Commission".  Lambeth  inform us that they've set up a Libraries Commission to "gather evidence" and "make recommendations" to the Council.  The Commission will be headed by Cllr Nosegbe, cabinet member for Culture, Sport and the Olympic Games. 


In the meantime, the Council note that they have to make "£1.2million of savings from the Cultural Services Division in 2011/12 and... restructure posts across the division".  It doesn't sound promising for the staff in question.  However, Lambeth also state on their website, "the intention... to continue staffing the nine existing libraries with their current opening hours".  One wonders how fewer staff (or perhaps less experienced staff) will continue to provide the same level of service.  It would be possible to cynically conclude that they will be unable to do so, which could result in worse "customer service" (since when are library users customers??), which will provide good reason to actually close a few libraries.  As I say, that would be cynical.  We will await the results of the Commission.

I saw it asserted back in February (in a variety of places) that the Durning Library (our local in SE11) was on a list for potential closure.  The Council denied the speculation was true and quashed the rumour hard, but not prior to it being printed in the South London Press.  The Vauxhall Society noted back in March that Cllr Steve Reed, Leader of Lambeth Council, promised a "review of the options", and it appears the time has come.  I'm slightly unclear why, in light of the promise to keep the nine libraries open for the same hours, a commission is actually needed, but perhaps it's sensible, given the fact that Lambeth's libraries appear to be underused, causing visits per head to be very expensive.


So... time for action.  There will be two "open space sessions" (Saturday 4th June, 10am-1pm, Lambeth Town Hall and Tuesday 14th June, 6:30pm-9:30pm, Lambeth Town Hall) where residents will be able to "design their own working agenda". That should prove very interesting, and is presumably a Co-operative Council working method.

To write to the Commission, giving your views (in case an open space session is not your thing), you can email: LibrariesHaveYourSay@lambeth.gov.uk .  The consultation closes on 1st July 2011.

Lambeth Council have put the Beaufoy Institute up for sale - anybody want a school?

So, as was widely predicted, Lambeth Council haave instructed an estate agent, Lambert Smith Hampton, to sell off the Beaufoy Institute in Black Prince Road, SE11. Selling off assets is obviously something Lambeth are doing in an attempt to raise funds, but it's a real shame they couldn't find a use for it in conjunction with a private partner. In cash-strapped times, the Council would probably maintain that public interest would not best be served by giving the building away for free, but does stripping North Lambeth of its assets serve local residents well in the long-term?  It rather depends on whom the Beaufoy is sold to, and to what end.

So, if you want to buy a Grade II listed building for, err, an undisclosed amount, you can use it for any D1 purpose - medical/health service, creche/day nursery, art gallery, educational establishment, museum, library (ha ha!), public hall or place of worship.  In 2006, the beaufoy was estimated to need £2 million spent on it to bring it into usable condition.  Any purchaser will also need to contribute to the Council's costs and submit a tender by 8th June 2011.  It looks as though it would be possible for one buyer to purchase the Annexe Extension and another to buy the Beaufoy building itself.

I'm not sure whether there's a covenant on it that would prevent it from being bought and then requesting a change of use, but if my memory serves me correctly, it has to be used for some form of arts/educational purpose.  I wonder if there's a possibility that the extension might be sold first for housing, with the building itself languishing for want of a buyer to inject the necessary capital to turn it into a viable public building.  Time will tell.

Excitingly, it is possible to view the building through the Estate Agent.  I wonder whether they'll accept enquiries from random members of the public.  I've always wanted to look around.  Anybody want to join me? ;-)

The census 2011: to complete or not to complete, that is the question.

About a month ago, I received an email from Mr H13208 who is our local 2011 Census Co-ordinator for Stockwell North and Vauxhall, whose job it is to "maximise coverage" of the census to ensure that Lambeth get their fair share of central government cash.  He asked me for ideas on distribution and publicisation of the census.  I note that the Prince's Ward SE11 Labour Action Team blog did a quick promotional "Remember to fill in your census form" post a few weeks ago and I've been pondering what to say (hence the delay).

Lambeth Council believes that it has historically missed out on central governent cash, recording only 272,000 people in the Borough in the last census in 2001.  Apparently, Lambeth had the 10th lowest census completion rates at 79% for 2001.  I'm speculating that there are a variety of reasons for that... Lambeth has an annual 20% population churn, multiple languages are spoken throughout the borough, I suspect that literacy may not be high amongst recent migrants, and finally, Lambeth residents likely avoid filling in official government forms, especially if they don't have leave to remain or do not wish to draw their presence to the attention of the Council, fearing that the central Government is not their friend for one reason or another! 

Even the Office of National Statistics noted that "the population, particiularly in London, is less compliant and less likely to respond to surveys than it was 10 years ago".  All in all, the Lambeth population is not an easy one to count and that doesn't bode well for Lambeth Council in its efforts to ensure that it receives a fair share of the central government pot.  But if the Council can get an extra 10,000 people to complete the census, Lambeth could receive something in the region of £60 million over the next 10 years.  Consequently, the Council has been putting on a variety of events to try and persuade a whole variety of groups (elderly, Portuguese speakers, Muslim mothers, youth, African language speakers etc.) to fill out their forms.

The problem is that whilst I really want Lambeth to receive all of its cash, I'm am not happy that our previous Labour government awarded part of the contract for the 2011 census (and the 2001 census, although I didn't know it then) to one of the world's premier arms dealers, a US company named Lockheed Martin.  This presents two issues; firstly, the profits made from the completion of the UK census will go to Lockheed Martin and could contribute to furthering weapons production.  The second issue is that the US Patriot act makes it possible for the US government to obtain information from any US company, and the UK government has not done much to reassure citizens that UK census data couldn't end up in the hands of the USA.

This presented me with something of a quandry when it came to mentioning the census on Lurking about SE11.  Whilst I very much want to ensure that our local services are not cut back any further than they should be, I did not wish to support Lockheed Martin.  The Guardian ran a useful article on Boycotting the 2011 census.  What to do?  I've not said anything at all until now (and I'm presuming that quite a number of readers will have submitted already).  Fortunately, I was sent a useful "how to fill in your census form" link from Peace News which suggests a multitude of fun and annoying ways to submit the census truthfully, help the local authority collect its money and at the same time reduce Lockheed Martin's profits and encourage them to employ people for additional hours (a good thing in the current economic climate).  If you've still to submit your census form, and benefitting a major arms producer is a concern for you (which I recognise it won't be for many), do consider their suggestions

Advanced notice - KOV Co-op Council Discussion & Thames Tunnel Consultation and

This is just a quick post giving advanced notice of three community gatherings.

Firstly, in view of the announcements of the Government's Spending Review, and the speculation that Lambeth Council will lose £70 million, some notion of Labour's Co-operative Council will soon become a reality in Lambeth.  Local public sector job cuts are likely (but we probably won't know the detail for a few months) and whether you call it Big Society or Co-operative Council, the result will be fewer services spread over the same (or greater) number of people.  According to Local London, considerations about pooling services such as road repairs, social care, rubbish collection, libaries and adult education between Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark Councils are under way.  I've no idea what any of this might look like, but there will be opportunites to ask questions at the next KOV meeting on 1 November at 6:30 for 7pm.  The venue is to be the Vauxhall Gardens Community Centre, 100 Vauxhall Walk, SE11 5EL.  Also announced at the KOV meeting with be "interesting news" about the future of the former Lilian Baylis school site (not sure how that will fare with all of the cuts) and apparently, some discussion of improvements planned for Vauxhall overground station.  It seems to be a rather full agenda so expect the meeting to run late.

Secondly, thanks to the good Cllr Harrison, a consultation will take place re. the Vauxhall Thames Tideway Tunnel ventiliation shaft etc. on the Albert Embankment in Vauxhall.  The consultation will be held on 6th November from 10am-4pm at Park Plaza Hotel, 18 Albert Embankment.  For more information about the tunnel, see my article "What is the Tideway Tunnel is, and how does it affect Vauxhall?".

Lastly, thanks to a commentator earlier in the week, some of you might be interested to know that former MP and local resident, Chris Mullin will be speaking at the Durning Library on Thursday 21st (tomorrow) at 6.45pm.  £2 is requested as a donation for refreshments.  The Times' Rod Liddle noted that Mullin's recently published diaries (A View from The Foothills) were "The most valuable set of diaries to emanate from the now interred corpse of new Labour; the most revelatory and also…the most entertaining."  Make of that what you will.