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COMMENT: Lambeth Libraries Safe Under Labour?
December 12, 2011 8:40 AM
Lambeth Labour is currently trumpeting that our libraries are safe in their hands following publication of the Library Commission's findings.
On the face of it, these are fine words but, like many of Labour's high profile public utterings, they require much closer scrutiny. For instance: " We will protect the library service in every part of the borough by working more closely with the local community as part of our plan to make Lambeth Britain's first cooperative Council."
That could just mean handing over some crumbling library buildings needing hundreds of thousands of pounds of repairs over to well-meaning community groups in the certain knowledge that they will eventually founder. Then it wouldn't be Labour closing the library, would it?
Also, just what exactly is a library service in New Labour New Speak? Is it a Council contact office where you can order a book on a machine?
Great play is now made that Waterloo's 20 year old temporary library will be closed and the service moved to more suitable premises. Where might that be? The original Victorian library building, perhaps, currently part-occupied by a local amenity group? Back to the Future.
At the other end of the borough, Norwood's library has been shamefully closed all year for roof repairs. We also hear that the basement boiler room has flooded, just to add to the building's woes. And a Labour councillor has now let the cat out of the bag that her chums in cabinet are actively considering using a small corner of the soon-to-be-built Norwood Hall all kinds of everything Civic Building. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Expect fanfares, too, over the coming weeks about the 'fabulous' new Clapham library that Labour will tell you is a fine example of their commitment and investment in libraries. Except that it isn't and they didn't. They got it for free from a developer using council land to build expensive apartments on Clapham High Road.
Someone once said that there's no such thing as a free lunch and someone else once said that if something looks too good to be true it probably isn't. This may turn out to be the brave new world Clapham Library's epitaph, too. An expensively gift-wrapped parcel with little or no content - certainly not books.
Labour will Big-Up their fabulous sugar-white modern edifice - it has already won a prize for best unbuilt building - with its whirly-gig ramps around a circular atrium cum children's play area. So expect lots of space with not much substance - not even a room big enough to hold a public meeting for 20 people we hear. No wonder some have already dubbed it the Great Clapham Meringue.
And that probably sums up Labour's commitment to libraries, really - all froth and nonsense.