Lewisham Council - £60m of spending cuts!

[Tim Lund]

Good question Tadpole. There's this http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres ... 201011.pdf 3Mb pdf, although when I try to read it, there are lots of blank pages - maybe I have the wrong software?

But to make any sense of this, you're probably going to have to be a CIPFA qualified accountanthttp://www.cipfa.org.uk/. I've not looked through this in any detail, but I would hope it makes clear what services are statutory, and what not. The actual discretion Councils have in spending their money is incredibly limited anyway, with the degree of central control we have in this country.

[Trawlerman]

So, the sharp meat-cleaver is aimed at Lewisham. All sorts of services will suffer, I'm sure. While there may be room and reason for some barmy and wasteful expenditure to yield to the blade, there are also quite a few deserving causes and services that will be chopped and consigned to the pyre: sacrificed to the great god of Greed whose high-priesthood still recite their mantra :' There is no alternative.' [Now, where have I heard that before?]

There may be things amiss with Lewisham's library service.But, let us not chuck out the baby with the bathwater. The same goes for many other services ...

[olatunde]

I have spent alot of time in sydenham library ever since lewisham turned foresthill library in to a childs playground,
i am sorry but i can't sit and read with childern running all over the place spilling drinks and crips over just about everything, not to mention what they do to that toliet in there
sydenham library is not in the best of shapes as lewisham have left it to rot for 5 years since the last time it was saved from being shut down so in the eyes of cost cutting its a very easy target.
but for people such a myself that want a quite place to read its far better then foresthill
was there any real need for our mayor to swear at all ?

maybe sir steve should be reminded of who pays his wages, yes its the idiots he swore at.
just goes to show what he really thinks of people that care enough to protest.

if lewisham is short of money how can they afford to go ahead with this ?
http://www.southlondonpress.co.uk/tn/ne ... d=lewisham

I can think of a few ways to save money.
get rid of flood lighting, is there really any need to run flood lighting on any lewisham buildings ?
change out dated blubs with LED versions that use only 1 or 2 watts per unit.

LED can also be used to light a sign you don't need a 10watt tube these days to light a exit sign.

[Sydnee]

This is ridiculous-I use the library regularly with my children. Their school Adamsrill visit regularly also and were recently treated to a brilliant music session organised by Library staff. I live in the area and the last thing Lower Sydenham needs are less resources. This must be stopped. Is there are campaign to stop this happening?

[simon]

Hi Sydnee,
I interviewed former Sydenham librarian Richard Hart for Sydenham Communtiy Radio last night and he trying to organise a campaign against the library's closure. I also spoke to Anthony Scully of Friends of Home Park and he indicated that FHOP was also opposed. It would seem that there is alot of opposition to the closure but it is not yet organised. Watch this space I guess.
As an aside, I wonder if the Sydenham Society will have a view? They seem mostly concerned with stopping things being built but they have campaigned against a closure recently, albeit the Greyhound.

[olatunde]

could we not start with collecting signatures from people that enter the library and then just before the mayor makes his mind up in november hand them in to him.

I am sure the staff would not mind this action being taken inside the library

[mummycat]

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[admin]

I can split posts off but not add to another thread. But the more threads it is mentioned - the better?

Admin

[floom]

Certainly cut back on public libraries.
They're not what they used to be; now they're noise-ridden dumps, with iPods squawking and mouthers yapping away at top volume. Not to mention the morons with their feet on tables and chairs while the "librarians" pretend not to notice.
A shed with a few computers will do for this public; no need to spend millions on refurbishment, etc.

[Chris Best]

There are previous links to the various reports to Mayor and Cabinet setting out the reasons for the reduction from Government to local council funding. We are working on saving £60 million from our budget over the next three years.

Our Lewisham, Our Say is the Council’s open dialogue with the community about how we face up to this mammoth challenge - and we want as many people as possible to be part of it so go to http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/CouncilAndDe ... hamOurSay/ for more information.

There is an online survey that asks people to consider the sorts of solutions the Council will need to consider in some areas – for example, increasing fees and charges; reducing levels of service; and transferring responsibility for some services to the local community.

The Council is also formally consulting with service users on some specific savings proposals. The website will also list details of these consultations. It is important that people take part in both the broader dialogue and the formal consultations, so that Mayor and Cabinet, and later full Council, have the benefit of views from people who use services and those who may not, but whose council tax helps pay for those services.

Feedback from all these consultation activities will be reported to Mayor and Cabinet at its meeting in November and will be made public on the website.

One of the proposals is to close Sydenham Library and we are holding a key stakeholders meeting next Thursday followed by a public meeting at 7pm on Thursday 19 August at the Grove Centre, 2 Jews Walk, Sydenham, SE26 6PL. The Council has twelve libraries and four are open every day including Forest Hill so part of this discussion is opening times – having longer opening times rather than salami slice those at are only open three days a week such as New Cross. We want to provide more than books in libraries and those that we have modernised include self-issue giving the librarians more time to talk to users – and I will take up the concerns of noise nuisance etc. So please come to the public meeting to give your views and hear about other proposals.

We also have the Sydenham Assembly meeting at 11am on Saturday 11 September – again at the Grove Centre for a presentation on the range of the proposals followed by round table discussions on your views. Following on from this we can have other meetings to discuss your ideas for different ways of providing services. Please let me know your views as well as representing Sydenham I am also the Cabinet Member for Community Services and my portfolio includes libraries. Other proposals include cutting the Town Centre Managers and reducing our contribution to the Police for PCSOs.

[Tim Lund]

Re this Simon:

They seem mostly concerned with stopping things being built

could you list some of the things the Sydenham Society has concerned itself with stopping?

Re the library, I think Mummycat's comment is helpful:

There is a Stakeholders meeting for the proposed library closure next week, so it's best to wait for more information.

Although formerly chair of the Sydenham Society, I make this post in a purely personal capacity

[olatunde]

I just sat here and done the online survey 3 times
all went well till the very end when i clicked submit it just hung there and done nothing at all.

whats the point of a online survey that won't accept answers ?

[mummycat]

p

[RedRevolver]

I have really fond memories of Sydenham Library - I've been brought up in Sydenham, and my mother has for those 18 years (and before) been working for the library (albeit now in a fortnightly role). I remember going there as a child, learning how to read and write through the efforts of the librarians that I recall with kindness and admiration. I remember sitting upstairs in the library (yes, there is an upstairs!) and whilst I personally do not remember it, my brothers and sisters equally were fond of the children's library that was next door and then turned into the "Open Doors". There are both young and old that depend on that service.

Yes, maybe sentimentality is getting the better of me, but even so, let us not forget it's benefactor, Arthur Carnegie. Carnegie paid for Sydenham and Crofton Park libraries to be erected; both these libraries are under threat of closure. I fear that the historical importance of these buildings will be lost if their original purpose is abandoned. I'm also confused as to why, when at least Sydenham has become very expensive to run due to poor maintenance work on the building, no one from the council has contacted CarnegieUK. Surely, as their primary concern is the maintenance of Carnegie buildings, they would try and fund at least some restoration work on the building? And therefore decrease potential running costs.

[Tim Lund]

Interesting that the man who paid for Sydenham Library - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie - did so with money from selling out to one of the greats of US investment banking!

[simon]

Yes Tim, and good luck to him.
I appreciate the irony but we really have to ask how Sydenham Library could survive two world wars and Great Depression but now be under threat of closure because the likes of JP Morgan got their sums wrong.
Andy C must be spinning in his grave!

[Tim Lund]

Simon:

As you know, I'm no great cheer leader for investment banks, but it's more often their clients who get their sums wrong. When the clients are in the public sector, the mistakes end up with tax rises, cuts to services, brutally enforced improvements in public sector productivity, or some combination of all these. There may be shades of opinion as to how much of the mess we are in is down to wicked investment banks, and how much foolish government, but what difference does it make to what we do now?

[Tim Lund]

I was at the stakeholders' meeting yesterday evening, and I don't want to say too much, because it's Council officers who know the detail best, and Chris Best who is maybe best placed to explain what is 'the offer'. It's clearly a situation where no one is happy, and for those of us being consulted, the dilemma is, as so often, whether to accept what we are told is given, and contribute to the discussion of what should be done given this, or not to accept supposed 'givens'.

In brief, the proposal is to deliver as much as possible of the services currently provided in the library from the current Naborhood Centre - without displacing the services currently based there - and to find some alternative community use for the current library building, which needs £250,000 spending on repairs.

The reason for closing any libraries is that, along with all other non-statutory, generally funded, services, it has to find 20-25% cuts, that with costs being overwhelmingly staffing, this means job losses, and these fewer staff are most effectively deployed in those libraries where there has more recently been investment. Which implies the specific reason for closing Sydenham, which is that it has already been neglected - comparatively - and anyway it needs all these repairs. A very rational decision - but are the social and symbolic implications factored in of closing a building specifically located for the public good in a less affluent area, then and still now?

There is the public meeting coming up at the Grove Centre, Aug 19, and the consultation period will continue until November, when a report from officers will go to Mayor and Cabinet. During this period many more expressions of outrage will be heard, and will be met by officers' and Councillors' explanations that this is what they think is the best to be made of a bad job.

If the outrage at this decision is to coalesce into an effective campaign, I for one would hope to be able to contribute to it. If officers hope instead that community groups and concerned local citizens will focus on helping them develop alternative uses, I would suggest their best bet will be to start by providing as much relevant background as possible. Come to think of it, if their decision is well founded, this will also help them make the case for it.

Finally - my final contribution to the meeting. The suggestion that community groups could get involved, making effective use of volunteering, is in its way inspiring. Could the Mayor, Cabinet members, and senior officers set an example, and join the spirit of this, by volunteering one day a week? In other words, accepting four days' pay for the same five days' work? If they have not considered this as a way of making 20% savings, maybe they should?

For reference, see page 49 in this report http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres ... 200809.pdf

Interestingly, one of the officers responded to this saying I was not the only one suggesting this. An on-line petition perhaps - Facebook group? Might we be pushing at a door which, if not open, will eventually give way? One thing is sure - without such an example, the community will be less willing to help.