Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Save Marcus Garvey Library!
The Council plans to change services at Marcus Garvey library. A group of users has come together to campaign against proposed reductions in library space and cuts to services, including the loss of a separate children's library counter and a likely severe reduction in space for children's and young adults services.
There is a petition at change.org
https://www.change.org/p/tell-haringey-council-to-save-tottenham-s-...
Our concerns are outlined there:
"We love Tottenham's Marcus Garvey library. We need it too. But the library is now at risk from severe cuts and reorganisation.
If you visit our library, in the children's library, you will find children and their carers doing messy play. In the young adult room you will find teenagers doing their homework. Upstairs in the adult library you will find the study desks full. You will find librarians advising someone where the best business start up book is and community groups using the meeting room. All in a safe, quiet space under the guidance of dedicated staff.
After the riots the government made a commitment to support the regeneration of tottenham. Haringey council has said they are committed to helping children have the best start in life and to improving library facilities. Marcus Garvey Library is the main library in Tottenham. The community uses it and needs it. But the library is at risk of being significantly cut: experienced staff being lost, activities being cancelled, building space being halved and stock being sent away, study desks being removed, children's library shrinking by 2/3, community meeting rooms being taken away..."
There are consultation sessions coming up this Friday and Saturday - please go (and take kids/friends etc) and let them know what you think:
Marcus Garvey library users can find out more at one of three public drop-in sessions planned for next week. Council officers will be on hand to talk through the ideas for the library at the following times:
Friday 27 March: 10.30am-12noon
Friday 27 March: 4-5.30pm
Saturday 28 March: 11am-12.30pm
Further engagement sessions for other libraries will be announced soon, and more information will also be available at libraries and our website.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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How much of this is down to them planning to shoe-horn in the Customer Services from Apex House, and how much from bog-standard cuts?
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Permalink Reply by Emma on
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It's outragous! Many young people cant study at home due to over crowded housing let alone children and parents being able to have space to play
I have signed this petition Tottenham is suppose to be regenerating noy making opportunities harder for locals
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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I completely agree, Emma. And it's not only young people.
There is also a very serious issue about reducing opportunities for adult learners. Some of whom have very poor accommodation and - certainly in years past - have used the libraries as their study spaces and gateway to new skills.
I'd be interested to hear from some HoL member who has personal or professional experience of this.
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Martin Ball and I visited Marcus Garvey Library for the information session this morning - 27 March 2015. There were a group of people welcoming and answering questions from Library Users. They included David Murray an interim senior manager; and councillor Jason Arthur. Also some staff from the architects working on the plans. (Who I wasn't able to speak to.)
To me, aspects of the conversation felt quite weird. Jason Arthur especially criticised our linking of the changes in the Library - and in Wood Green Library - with the sale of Apex House. We kept pointing out the fact that there was a link because the sale of Apex House had led to the services provided and the staff there having to be relocated. Including to Marcus Garvey Library. Jason Arthur in particular insisted that the changes were about improving Marcus Garvey Library.
Pam, I got confirmation of the figures which that the Council is going to make - in effect a loss - on the Apex House sale. Jason Arthur wouldn't confirm the most recent figure, £3.2m, which I'd heard from my most reliable source. But he did say more than £3 million. He said that with the changes to Marcus Garvey Library and costs of moving some other from Apex House to Wood Green, the total bill will be far in excess of that. With the shortfall made up by taking money from the Council's capital budget.
Haringey has a well known track record for overruns on its capital projects.
In other words, Pam, this appears to be the very poor financial transaction which you and others have suggested. Exactly why Grant Thornton the Council's auditors approved this deal is a mystery to me - which perhaps will be explained at some point.
I also asked Cllr Jason Arthur whether or not Apex House has in fact been sold. But he wasn't able to tell me what point in the transaction the Council and Grainger had reached.
Nor was he able to answer my question as to whether the sale included an overage provision to cover the possibility that the public asset sold to Grainger may become significantly more valuable. Jason Arthur undertook to find out and let me know.
Martin Ball and I didn't have time to look carefully at the drawings. But we were told that these were either on the Council website, or would be there shortly. I had an interesting conversation with Mr Murray when he claimed that several areas of the library were either unused, or rarely used. Which meant they need not be "counted" for the purposes of assessing the space to be lost.
It would be helpful if other library members visiting to view these plans or talk to the staff, or councillors there, explored and recorded these and others aspects, and reported back on HoL. And to the campaign which Luci and others have set up. Plainly there has been a lot of rumour. If people own a smartphone - I don't - it may be helpful to record what's said, to ensure accurate reporting of facts and figures.
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Permalink Reply by Luci on
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Another night owl! Jason Arthur is claiming on Twitter that he's had nothing but positive feedback, so it's interesting to say the least to know that you and Martin visited. Several of us, including Liz Ixer, have responded to his tweets challenging what he's saying. Other Marcus Garvey campaign members have posted some feedback from today, including people on the Council side saying that they will need to discard lots of books, including most of the YA stock, because the books don't get borrowed enough anyway. Various Library Friends and Action groups across Haringey met the Council on Thursday and apparently the whole discussion was taken up with Marcus Garvey, where we're still talking about setting up a formal group. Liz's report is that a lot of concerns were raised - will the study space remain usable as a study space? Downstairs will be a corridor for visitors to the Council office upstairs. A big discussion about safeguarding of children using the library - and I think that's without the idea that the main entrance to the building will be located where the children's library currently is, and that car parking will be moved round that side - not great for parents/carers using the library with lively 3 year old escapologists....
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Alan, I have reposted your report on our FB group, I hope that's okay, but I think it's really helpful to those of us going to tomorrow morning's consultation session.
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Apex House will not be sold till Grainger has planning permission for its 22-storey tower. It will not go to the planning committee till 'the summer' after this extensive consultation period (snork).
Your point about increased profits could well be an issue as the plan has gone from 95 dwelling units to 152 dwelling units. Explanation of this, we have none. It could be that Grainger has spotted the sheltered housing next door to Apex House and has charitably realised that they will look a bit silly being so tiny, and wishes to include that block in ApexTown thus creating 50 extra dwelling units (minus the ones that could be lost).
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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On Thursday I attended the Friends of Libraries Meeting at Wood Green Library (a group that meets every couple of months). We focused exclusively on the Marcus Garvey Library plans, about which I had kept an open mind up until that point, having been assured in the previous meeting that these plans was about improvement of the LIBRARY service and more effective use of space to that end . As details emerged, I became increasingly dismayed as did others at the meeting at what was on the table.
These are my personal notes from that meeting:
Some key areas of concern discussed:
1. Loss of library space - whichever way they dress this up, they are moving a large and busy council office, the benefits office, onto the top floor at MGL for which they are taking most of the top floor. The downstairs library becomes effectively the route to this office upstairs. It is debatable whether this will translate into increased use of the *library* as promised by officers. Their figures envisage 50 people an hour coming into the building through the library to access a service which is currently not fit for purpose, which is under pressure from the increasing number of claims for HB and also the increased default on council tax and which is creating a lot of distress and misery because of delays, poor communication and errors. This will result in a busy entrance and "corridor" to the benefits office which is likely to change the atmosphere of the library considerably.
2. Staff are losing their specific job description and being given generic job descriptions - this means no specialisms are protected, e.g. children's librarian, and staff will be subject to being moved to other customer services if there are staff shortages. This will likely affect recruitment and retention of qualified staff. Staff are being referred to as floorwalkers and customer service assistants. They are not librarians and are not employed as librarians.
3. The emphasis of the building is likely to change from a library to a council office with a "library presence" - Borne out by experiences of "hubs" elsewhere, staff are likely to find themselves at increased risk from the public (frustrated people coming from the benefits office, for example). The building risks being perceived as a less "safe" space and use of the *library*, although not the building, may even drop rather than increase. Scenarios currently played out at Apex House will now be played out next to the supposedly quiet study area which is being built next to it, but with that volume of people (don't forget this office will be accessed by everyone in the borough - this isn't an extra office opened) accessing the benefits office, it doesn't seem likely that area will be a quiet or distraction-free area.4. Safeguarding of children - MGL has a thriving and popular children's library service which is losing its space and own counter. Has a bespoke safeguarding check been done on the health and safety of children accessing the library service after these changes? Worth challenging. If the library becomes a busier and more chaotic place, how will this affect the way children and young people use it?
5. Closure of the library for the renovations - this will happen. No one has got a firm proposal of what provision will be made for library users during closure but apparently "officers are working on it" - given the urgency with which they need to move the benefits office without a break of service they had better be working overtime.
Friends discussed these plan in a very forthright manner and raised concerns about all these issues. There was very little enthusiasm for these plans and a recognition that other libraries will be seen as "customer service centres" in the same way by the council, de-skilling and hollowing out the service from within. The persistent refusal to link the sale of Apex House 3.4. million ish) to the "improvements" (you're going to need better toilets with 50 people an hour coming into a building) at Marcus Garvey (3 million) and Wood Green (2 million) where the homelessness service will be based is breathtaking in its spin.
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I hope Cllr Jason Arthur reads and ponders your comments, Liz.
I have yet to make up my - still - open mind about him. Jason is young and has been a councillor for under a year. He also seems bright enough to spot that he's probably one of the patsies in Claire Kober's political game. Perhaps he hasn't yet realised he's bring required to parrot nonsense on steroids.
On the other hand he's in a narrow political echo chamber where Groupthink seems to rule; and repeating the Dear Leader's line is the route to preferment.
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I don't know Alan. I hope so.
I appreciate the officers and staff at the council have been dealt a duff hand with this Apex House decision and they are trying the problems created by it, but it has become clear from conversations with some of the councillors, including Jason, that they don't really understand what a library is or what a librarian does (in the same way they are vague about the role of Children's Centres). Are they willing to listen or learn or will they always follow TINA? The signs are not good so far...
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