PC Nigel Brown

07792 437321

 

Nottinghamshire Police

0300 300 9999

24th March 2010

A member of the Wilford Community Group committee was working in London this week near to the Woodberry Down volunteer-run library. The library was mentioned in an article in the Guardian newspaper earlier this month as an example of how a local community can run a library.

 

On arriving at the library, a number of things became apparent. Firstly, the library is located in a council-run and maintained building (the Robin Redmond Resource Centre). Secondly, the library manager is a employee of the Council and one of her roles is to recruit volunteers. Thirdly, although the library was advertised as being open when the committee member arrived, because that day's volunteer had not turned up, the library could not open. Finally, the library was housed in a very small room, probably one quarter to one third the size of Wilford's library, although it did have a single computer for use by library users. A member of the library action committee is going to try to speak to the library manager to get more information about how the library is run and funded.

18th March 2010

Members of the Wilford Library Action Group met again with the City Council this week. Unfortunately, no Councillors were present so the meeting took place with only officers of the Council. The decision to not invite Councillors was made by one of the officers at the meeting and with hindsight this was a mistake because the officers were able to take a "we are only following orders" approach to the meeting. The result of this was that the Library Service officers stated that they had been told by Councillors to not spend anything on Wilford Library. And we thought that it was the job of the officers to advise the elected members, not the other way round!

 

The Group was informed that the staff at Wilford Library had been offered  new positions which is, of course, excellent news, but it does mean that the annual savings from closing the library are not the £38,000 previously identified but just £14,000 because the staff's salaries will still be paid. Just £14,000 annually to save this well-loved community facility - it's not much is it?

 

However, the fight will go on for now. An article has been submitted to the Nottingham Evening Post and the Neighbourhood News. There were a number of articles in the Guardian last week about libraries and the article has been sent to that paper's Social Affairs Editor. A newsletter from Wilford Community Group will be delivered with the Neighbourhood News with a pre-printed protest letter that recipients can send to Councillor David Trimble.

 

The Community Group Secretary is planning to visit Woodberry Down Library in Hackney this week. This is a library that is run entirely by volunteers. There is an interesting article here that provides some background information about the library.

19th February 2010

Libby Hamilton, children's author and former resident of Wilford, has called for the library to be saved. Click here for the full story in the Nottingham Evening Post.

15th February 2010

This month's Community Group saw a large number of residents attend to hear the latest new about the library. After describing the options available (see below) the unanimous view was that the campaign to save the library should continue and Community Group Chair Stephanie Taylor asked for volunteers to form an action group to work on the details of the campaign and the way forward.

 

One of the options is to seek to exploit the talent in Wilford to help get better and informed information about what can and cannot be achieved. For example, one of the options for running the library is to form a Community or Charitable Trust to take ownership of the building and land, but we would need legal advice (which we cannot afford) to understand the implications of this. Can you help?

14th February 2010

Nottinghamshire Library Service has "presented" what it considers are the three options available for the future of the library. All of these involve significant cost, including tens of thousand of pounds that the "community" would have to raise to renovate the building that the Library Service has failed to maintain! Click here to see their paper.

12th February 2010

Today, Wilford Community Group met with Alan Simpson MP who was very interested and as helpful as he could be. He agreed with the opinion we have come to that we can’t contemplate running any kind of library service unless the council agrees to let us keep books and receive the usual replacements/replenishments as we go along AND to retain some level of library service staff at the premises.  In addition, he says that we should ask immediately for a break-down of running costs involved in keeping the building going. 

 

Alan agreed to write to Michael Williams, Director of libraries, with his ideas and he went away and drafted something straight away.

11th February 2010

Library Service publishes library usage figures. Click here for the document received from the Library Service.

 

9th February 2010

There was an interesting article in today's Daily Telegraph entitled "Libraries could shut in wave of spending cuts, under Government plans" with the strap-line "Public libraries across the country could be closed to save money, under plans being considered by ministers." Is the City Council simply following Government instructions????? Click here for the Daily Telegraph story.

8th February 2010

The petition was presented to Cllr. Tim Spencer at the Council House today and then by him to the Lord Mayor at a full Nottingham City Council meeting on Monday this week.  The final figure was almost 800 signatures.  A fantastic effort in the space of just 8 days.  WCG understands that in due course there will be some kind of response and when there is it will, of course, be published here.  Attention was also drawn to the fact that there is a Facebook ‘Save Wilford Library’ campaign on-line which around 130 people have joined.

 

WCG representatives sat through more than 2 hours of the meeting, waiting to hear a question put by Cllr. Andrew Price to David Trimble.  He asked whether it would be worth scrapping one issue of The Arrow to pay for a year’s worth of library service in Wilford.  The response was actually made by Cllr. Graham Chapman who is Deputy Leader of the Council.  He defended closure by talking about declining use of the library and a seriously deteriorating building.  The latter, of course, is true but the figures published in response to a Freedom of Information Request (see 2nd February below) show usage is actually increasing.  WCG Chairperson Stephanie Taylor is writing to Cllr. Chapman asking him for figures relating to the last 12 months.

 

Click here for the Nottingham Evening Post article about the petition and here for the article about the Facebook group.

5th February 2010

The "Save Wilford Library" Facebook got some publicity today in the Nottingham Evening Post. At the time of updating this webpage, it has over 100 members.

4th February 2010

Alan Simpson MP has asked for  meeting with Wilford Community Group. This will take place on Friday 12th February 2010, and we will update you when we have any further information.

3rd February 2010 - LIBRARY REPRIEVED, FOR NOW!

Wilford Community Group committee members and supporters met with Councillor David Trimble and representatives of Nottinghamshire Library Service. Here are thw WCG's Chairperson's notes from the meeting:

 

"Our meeting....with the City Council went ahead yesterday.  Present were Cllr. Trimble, both Heads of the Library Service – Christina Dyer and Natalie Sellears (it’s a job share),  John Sadler - Head of the Estates Department,  Mark Hillary – Head of the Neighbourhood Management Team for Area 9, Brian Hardy from our committee and Maureen Godfrey a passionate library user and local resident and me, of course.   Cllr. Andrew Price’s political assistant was also there taking notes, although he did not speak.

 

The good news is that the library is NOT going to close immediately.  However, Councillor Trimble has only given us about 6 months in which to explore the possibility of running some sort of library service with volunteers from the community and some, limited, support from the Library Service.  The point has clearly been taken that we need some time to consider our options, so in that we have been successful.  The publicity we have achieved, although uncomfortable for Cllr. Trimble, has really helped.  He was keen to help us retain some sort of library service, albeit run in a different way.

 

We spent some time talking about the building itself which, in the proposal put by Cllr Trimble, would become the responsibility of a specially formed community group.  As you all know, it is in a terrible state of repair and we would not want to use it without putting this right.  This will cost a substantial amount of money.  John Sadler has agreed to provide us with the most recent survey report so we can see what needs doing.  He also agreed to investigate the possibility of including in the transfer some extra council-owned land beside the building so that, in an ideal world, we could extend the building to provide some additional community space.   Maintenance of the building and insurance would all have to be paid for by the community group.  Mark Hillary will be finding out what funding in the form of grants etc. might be available to us.  He also suggested that we contact Nottingham Council for Voluntary Service for help and advice.

As far as actually running a library service is concerned, there are many questions to be answered.  It is clear that a volunteer group could not possibly run a service exactly like the one currently available.  However, Christina Dyer agreed to set out for us all the services currently provided and the responsibilities of the staff.  I will try to ensure we have this in time for our next meeting on 15 February.  She agreed, contrary to her original position, that we could keep the books and the computer terminal link to central library services and we could use the library delivery service to keep books in rotation around the city.  We also discussed the possibility of retaining some kind of council staff in-put. ..... What was actually offered was the support of a library out-reach worker but this only amounts to someone who would come along and run, for example, a mother and toddler session.  We don’t need that, particularly, but we do need some professional support in the day-to-day running of the library.  If we do go ahead with a community-run library we need to pursue this energetically.  Christina also said that volunteers could access training provided by the council, initially at no cost, but this was not likely to be available indefinitely.

 

These are the basic points raised at the meeting.  We await information from the Estates Manager and from Christina Dyer.  As a community we will need to decide whether we have a strong enough support base to undertake the many tasks that might, ultimately, get us to the position where we can run a library of sorts.  This will be a long, time-consuming and complex job and we would need legal advice (also at our own cost) to help us decide what kind of group we need to get together and how it is constituted.   Then, of course, we would need to be sure that we could get adequate volunteer support to operate the library.  We have a long way to go but at least we have some time in which to consider it.  Cllr. Trimble wants us to tell him by September whether or not we want to go ahead.  He also said that if we decide not to go ahead with a community library project then he is still willing to let us have the site to pursue some other kind of community facility if we want to.  He would help us with that too.

 

Sorry this is so long but I wanted as many people as possible to have this information to think about ahead of our next meeting.  Please consider whether or not you would be prepared to put in some time and effort in the exploratory phase.  Your comments would be very much appreciated. 

 

We will be in touch with the Evening Post and BBC Radio Nottingham again because we want the issue to remain live so look out for news.

 

Thank you all for your support."

 

In addition, another article appeared in tonight's Nottingham Evening Post.

 

2nd February 2010

A Wilford resident submitted a Freedom of Information request to Nottingham City Council for information about the closure of Wilford library. The response from the City Council can be found here. There was NO mention of the closure of the library.

 

Today, the campaign to save the library was the subject of an Editorial in the Nottingham Evening Post.

29th January 2010

A petition will be available to sign on Saturday 30th January 2010 outside the library. If you are unable to sign the petition, or the collectors were not there when you went by, you can download a blank form here (PDF document) or here (Microsoft Word document). Why not get some of your friends and neighbours to sign it? Completed forms should be sent to David Boulton Wilford Community Group Secretary, 6 Vernon Avenue, Wilford, NG11 7AE by Sunday 7th February 2010. Every signature counts.

28th January 2010 - Exchange of Emails between Wilford Community Group and Councillor David Trimble

The following email was sent to David Trimble by Wilford Community Group. His reply (which seems to add to the confusion about the library) is reproduced underneath.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear David,

 

We had a very well attended meeting with local residents on Tuesday evening.  There is very great disappointment that plans to close the library seem to be steaming ahead with only 9 weeks to go.  As you know, we have had no chance over the last two years to make our feelings felt about this because we did not know that closure was planned.  Some residents are still not willing to accept the decision and you will be hearing from them.  Keeping us in the dark about closure has given us no chance to consider our options or talk in a constructive way about what we might do to retain the library in some form.  The idea of asset transfer was raised and then, apparently, withdrawn and then the offer of purchase of the site was made.

 

The community has many questions about all this.  I have listed some of them below.  They need urgent answers before we can make any progress here in Wilford.  Can I ask you to arrange a meeting for us next week with those who have the answers to these questions?  This is absolutely essential in the tight timescale we are in.  We don’t want to see the library closed at all but we also do not want to see it abandoned leaving a seriously deteriorating building – a public symbol of the neglected needs of the people of Wilford.

 

Questions

 

1. If a community group purchased the building does this give the group freehold ownership of the land?

 

2. Who pays the legal fees for any purchase?

 

3. Would the building/site be owned by named individuals or a group of people?

 

4. If a community group decided not to purchase the site what would happened to it?

 

5. Would all fixtures,fittings and stock be removed?

 

6. Would the council demolish the building and clear the land of all rubbish and rubble?

 

7. Would the council actively help and support development of the land by a community group?

 

8. Would an application for change of use/planning permission be favourably received?

 

Obviously, these are all questions related to possible purchase but we do still have questions about the asset transfer suggestion too.  Above all, we need more time!   We cannot do the impossible and the 31 March proposed deadline is hopeless. 

 

Please help us to work constructively towards an outcome that will not leave local residents, particularly the very young and the elderly, even more deprived than before of services for which we pay our Council Tax.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Stephanie Taylor

Chair Person

Wilford Community Group

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Stephanie,

 

Thank you for your e-mail.  

 

As I said when I met you, I do know that there is going to be a great deal of disappointment whenever a difficult decision is likely to be made on a library. I think you know from our brief encounters up until now that I am not insensitive. I have said that I will try and work with the community and I will within reason. I / we did not keep you in the dark as when officers made representations I flatly rejected them. I did not say we will look at that in 2 years time, I did not know what would happen in 2 years time. Nothing had changed at that time so I think it is a bit disingenuous to say that you were kept in the dark. The idea of an Asset Transfer was raised by me not the officers as I wanted to look at ways of working with the community. It was not withdrawn when the purchase of the site was raised, that came from both Councillor Price thinking it might be a better option as having the asset outright might make it easier to attract match funding and my mentioning that this happened at The Lenton Centre in the ward I represent. Nothing has been withdrawn. On a telephone discussion I also agreed that I would work with you to look at other options if you required that. I am not going to negotiate with you via e-mails; Asset Transfer is all about negotiations and as such there are no definitive answers, no set recipe.    

 

Whilst a decision on the revenue costs will be made one way or the other when the budget is decided, it does not necessarily mean that it will be enforced immediately. I am happy to work with you but I also have a very busy diary and a lot of other commitments too.

 

Councillor Trimble

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Needless to say, Wilford Community Group was not happy with this reply which not only does not address the issues in the original email, but adds to the confusion with the statement "Whilst a decision on the revenue costs will be made one way or the other when the budget is decided, it does not necessarily mean that it will be enforced immediately". A reply was sent to Councillor Trimble - I don’t want to negotiate by email either which is why I asked for a prompt meeting with someone who can answer our questions.  Can you suggest an appropriate group and date?" - and he has replied with dates when he can meet with the Community Group. We will report here what happens at the meeting when a date is agreed.

 

28th January 2010

A copy of a letter from Alan Simpson MP to Michael Williams, Corporate Director for Culture & Communities, Nottingham City Council was received by the Community Group today. It reads as follows:

 

Dear Michael

                                   

RE: Wilford Library Closure

 

I am sure you won’t be surprised that I have been receiving a large number of calls and emails about the proposed closure of Wilford Library.  I have pointed out to people that this is a council rather than a parliamentary matter, but I just want to register a degree of surprise and disappointment that this news reached me via the press, rather than at an earlier stage of consideration.   

 

I don’t know how long the Council has been considering this decision, but to announce it as a done deal appears to close off the consideration of other options in a somewhat peremptory manner.

 

I attach a copy of the email response I sent to Stephanie Taylor, in advance of the meeting you have had this week.  It attempted to set out some initial thoughts about how the community might take responsibility for some of the costs of maintaining the building.  It also mentioned one way in which they could deliver an income stream for it, that might pave the way for building maintenance work, or even a new replacement building.

 

All this, however, was against a background of not knowing precisely what the rationale for closure was.  Since the meeting took place, it does not appear that people are any clearer about this.  It would be helpful if you could let me have a relatively straightforward explanation of what lies behind the decision.  This will make it far easier to then engage with the community in discussions about alternatives they might wish to consider.  My experience is simply that if people are given the full information to begin with, and have their own opportunity to go through the difficult choices in front of them, they often come up with ideas that we have missed.  If none are possible, there is still a better understanding about an eventual choice that is unavoidable rather than arbitrary.

 

At the moment, the main pressure I am coming under is just for a reasonable extension of time, so that other options can be explored with you.  This would be consistent with what the Council says is its approach to consultation and involvement with local communities.  I hope this is something you can sign up to in this instance.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Alan Simpson MP

 

27th January 2010

WCG Chairperson appeared on a follow-up broadcast today.

 

In a separate report in the Nottingham Evening Post, "Liberal Democrat councillor Gary Long has seized upon a reference in the budget to a "libraries modernisation programme" which is actually about the potential closure of two libraries...."As a consultation it is a joke," Coun Long said. "There is no way anyone could guess from that that it would lead to the potential closure of two libraries. How can the council expect to get any reasonable comment?"" Click here for the full article.

26th January 2010

The first public meeting since the decision to close Wilford library was announced was held today. A lot of residents attended and whilst a lot of residents want efforts concentrated on saving the library, discussion also took place around the options for the site should it not be possible to save the library. In the meantime it was agreed that residents should write personal letters to Councillor David Trimble expressing their objections and a petition would be organised by the Community Group.

 

Options for the site included a play area, a book swap centre, whether the option of a Post Office should be pursued or whether a commercial option was available. It was agreed that at this early stage, the Community Group would seek a face-to-face meeting with Councillor Trimble.

 

25th January 2010

The following email from Aland Simpson MP was received today by Wilford Community Group:

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Dear Stephanie

 

[Named Wilford resident] forwarded your email [regarding the closure of the library] to me and I wanted to come back to you with a response prior to your emergency meeting.  I cannot make it to this meeting because I am always in Parliament during the week.  I just wanted to come back to you with some thoughts and possibly an offer of help.

 

I know the issue of Library services is entirely a matter for the local authority and I had not been approached about the proposed closure of Wilford Library.  Forgive me therefore if I have to speculate about the grounds for closure rather than argue from precise details. 

 

My recollections have been that Wilford was one of the better used libraries, so ‘under use’ may not be the principal grounds for the Council’s decision.  I suspect that it may have more to do with the condition of the building and the implications for future costs.

 

I think you are right to come to a view that the community itself could not run the Library.  I am not sure that the offer of the site (post demolition) takes you much further.  My gut feeling takes me towards a much more specific problem about a limited term extension of the Library’s life.  Let me outline my thoughts.

 

Would the Council consider maintaining the service if the community took ownership of the building?  In this way, it would be possible to get some breathing time, in which the staffing, rent and running costs were paid, but without the Council then having responsibility for the long-term maintenance and improvement costs.  The reason I ask this, is that, as of April this year, the Government is introducing a scheme of ‘feed-in-tariffs’ for renewable energy generation.  Buildings that install (say) a complete solar roof will then be able to receive payments for the clean energy they generate.  Such payments can be up to four times the market price of the energy and will last for a guaranteed period of 20 years.  I have looked at how such schemes work in other parts of Europe and they prove to be incredibly successful and attractive.  Banks usually make low interest loans for the installation of the kit and schemes pay themselves back in periods of little more than 5 years. If this was feasible for the Library, it could provide the basis of an income stream which itself would part fund repairs and improvements.  Whatever the prospects are for the existing building, this would also offer some security and continuity with which a longer term plan could be formulated.

 

I presume the community would have to form a charitable trust to do this.  The advantage would be that you would also become more substantial partners in determining the future of a Library service in Wilford. In itself, this would be a big step on from the fairly vulnerable position that the community finds itself in at the moment. 

 

Do let me know if your meeting wants to take these ideas on board and also if the Council finds them interesting.  If so, I would be more than happy to play a part in taking them forward.

 

Yours sincerely 

 

Alan Simpson MP

Nottingham South

 

22nd January 2010

Last night the Wilford Community Group had a very depressing meeting with Councillor David Trimble and Christina Dyer, Head of Libraries, to see if a way could be found to preserve this precious resource.  It very quickly became clear that the decision to close the library has been made and there is nothing that can be done to change that.  Cllr. Trimble was not prepared to give us a two year reprieve as we requested because, apparently, he had already gained a two year stay of execution when he came in to office 2 years ago.  Sadly we were not informed at that time that closure was planned and we now have very little time to consider any options/action. 

 

Maureen Godfrey, who was at the WCG committee meeting on Monday, made many important points about the value to the community of our library and the need to improve it not remove it.  The Library Service and councillors, however, have decided that there must be fewer but better libraries in Nottingham and that Wilford does not rate anywhere on the deprivation scales that would convince them to invest money in our library.  Maureen suggested that since the poor state of the building seemed to be the major factor in deciding on closure it might be worth exploring the possibility of leasing the Maypole Pub building and converting it for library use.  Cllr. Trimble and Christina Dyer were not interested in this idea because it would cost money they do not have.  It emerged that the amount of money being saved by closing Wilford Library is minimal in the scheme of things but they do not have, they say, any capital to spend on it.  They have chosen to spend money in other locations and were not in the least persuaded by arguments about other losses to our community, the four schools we have here and the particular needs of the very young and the elderly in Wilford.  It is likely that the library will close by the end of March 2010.

 

We asked about 106 money and were told that, at the moment, 106 money cannot be made available for libraries.  Councillor Andrew Price is, we believe, working to change this but it is not a current option.  In any case, a new library building with better facilities would probably cost well in excess of £3m which is far more than might ever become available to us from that source.  Although the community might be able to raise cash from charitable sources it would be very hard work to raise enough.  Then, of course, there would be running costs to meet.  It’s not impossible, but difficult.

 

The question of ‘asset transfer’ was raised.  Christina Dyer had spoken to a number of local authorities around the country where the community had attempted to take over responsibility for running the library and, as of now, no one has managed to do it.  The complexity of running a library demands expertise and experience and it seemed unlikely that we would be any more successful here than anywhere else in trying to set this up.  It would, also, of course, still cost the council something and they don’t want to spend anything on Wilford Library. 

 

It was suggested that a group could be formed to purchase the site on which the library currently stands. The cost of purchase is £10.  WCG's understanding is that the council would demolish the building leaving the Group with the site which is worth in the region of £30,000.00.  Wilford would then at least have something and could take some time to consider what it might do. 

 

Finally, in the absence of a permanent library building it was agreed that Wilford could have access to the mobile library which provides good service.  This would do something for Wilford but obviously does not provide a service even vaguely resembling the community resource offered by permanent staff and a building:  no meeting space, no facility for inviting in schools or homework clubs, no mother and baby sessions …the list of things Wilford wouldn’t get is long.

 

In the light of all the above it seems appropriate to call an emergency meeting of the Wilford Community Group to find out how local people would like to proceed.  We need to know if there is enough support and enthusiasm in the community to go for site purchase and then to develop ideas from there.

 

The meeting is to be held on Tuesday 26 January 2009 at the Wilford Bowls and Social Club at 7.30 pm.  Please come if you can and help us decide what action to take.

18th January 2010

The regular monthly Community Group meeting was dominated by the closure of Wilford library and was attended by approximately 3o residents, Councillor Andrew Price, Wilford Library staff and Rowena Holland, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Nottingham South. The full minutes of the meeting can be found by clicking here (PDF document).

15th January 2010

Some Wilford Community Group committee members were interviewed yesterday by BBC Radio Nottingham about the library.

There is also an article in today's Nottingham Evening Post putting a slightly different spin in the story.

6th January 2010

Wilford Community Group has been informed by a local Councillor that Wilford Library is one of five that will be closed in the near future.  If you are as unhappy with this decision as we are please come to the next Community Group Meeting at the Bowls and Social Club on Main Road, Wilford, on Monday 18 January 2010 at 7.30pm where you can add your opinion/ideas to our discussion.  The library is yet another valued local service that is about to be removed.  We can’t let it go without considering ways of trying to save it.

 

Alternatively, email your views to WilfordCG@hotmail.com

Or, contribute to the discussion by going to the Discussion Forum.