To the Councillors of Westminster City Council.. From the staff of Westminster Libraries

From the staff of Westminster Libraries...

To the Councillors of Westminster City Council,

Westminster Libraries currently uses less than 1% of the council’s overall budget. We have 11 libraries, an archives service, a reference library, a music library, a home library service and the largest online database for any public library service in the UK. We provide books, DVDs & CDs, Internet access, CV building workshops, Under 5s sessions, class visits, language and computer courses, community groups and workshops and engage teenagers through projects like Fast Forward which has taken over from the connexions career Services: We promote health, community and citizenship and provide a free space to work, socialise and study for residents and visitors.

We now have Parking, Council tax, Rescard, Housing and OneStop services incorporated into our day-to-day duties with no additional funding as a service or as employees; In fact we’ve provided all these services at this low cost whilst going through 5 years of cuts that has already closed libraries, reduced our budget and decimated our staff levels each and every year.

When employment goes down, our workload goes up, and as homelessness increases and incomes plummet, our footfall increases. Year-on-year we've risen to the challenge of providing all these services for that ever shrinking less than 1% of the council’s budget.

In 2011, Westminster Council hired two new department directors at the rate it cost to run St James’s library which they were closing at the same time.

In that same year, Westminster councillors refused a 5% reduction to wages above £100,000 to save £3.5Million because the saving would be too insignificant to justify; but library staff have been asked to bear double that cut for only 10% of that saving.

The solution to unemployment cannot be to fire people, and the solution to debt is not to cut income generating, job creating, and crime preventing services.

Not only is it a statutory requirement to provide this service, it is our moral obligation to do so.  With new challenges, we need new ideas, not old mistakes and any further cuts to our library service budget would be a drop in the ocean compared to almost any other department in a council that has often stood in the spotlight on the international stage.

We ask that this race to the bottom is brought to an end; and that Westminster council commits to investment rather than cuts so we can continue the good work that we do for the small budget we have.

The Staff of Westminster Libraries

Tuesday 13th March 2012: Lobby Parliament to Save Our Libraries

As another push to defend public services, there’ll be a Lobby for Libraries on Tuesday 13^th March 2012 from noon onwards at Central Hall, Westminster.

Supporters of the public library service from all over the country will be meeting to Rally support for the great work of library staff and the services they deliver.

It was legislated that maintaining a comprehensive library service was a vital responsibility of the state in our democracy. Although genuine philanthropy is always welcome, the responsibility falls on the state as the body that is responsible for the most vulnerable members of our society and as the body accountable to this democratic process to ensure that regardless of circumstances, any individual can empower themselves, educate themselves and contribute to society at any point in their lives.

I’ve never been a fan of party politics as I believe the issues should be considered on their own merit, but it is clear to see that this government has not been acting in the best interest of the electorate. Why should they? They were by no means voted in by the electorate so maybe this is some form of resentment for being unpopular.

I might sound paranoid but why would a government, reduce opportunities for education by increasing tuition fees and making cuts to schools, reduce the number of people in employment by almost 1 million and encourage the erosion of terms and conditions so working families cannot support themselves. Further, reduce welfare while encouraging what almost amounted to slavery through companies like Tesco and Poundland under Big Society and reduce funding to the police force so the inevitable increase in crime would go unchecked.

How does this relate to libraries? Libraries educate, libraries help people get back to work, libraries support community business and take children off the streets. Libraries relate to us, they’re a significant part of the antidote to the ignorance; poverty and chaos that this government is creating. And you’ve already paid for it. Unfortunately they’ve taken the money and now they’re saying they’ve spent it on something else.

Not convinced? After eight phases of redundancies amounting to 1,200 post deletions, Westminster, the council who claims to be saving libraries in an unprecedented way has shown minimal innovation in this matter. The great plan to save libraries was first to close St James Library and axe its staff, now phase two will be to reduce staffing across Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea by another 10% as part of the Tri-borough project. Yes, the great innovation of Tri-borough are more staff cuts… repackaged.

With no sign yet of the financial opportunities in Tri-borough, the scheme will save £1million through staff cuts. it’s interesting to note that when proposing the Tri-borough cuts, Westminster councillors were asked if they would consider cutting the wages of those earning over £100,000 by 5% to save £3million and they said no, this wasn’t a significant enough saving.

Your money is being wasted and your voice silenced, please come along on the 13^th March at Central Hall Westminster to fight for your future.

The rally will take place from 11.30am at Central Hall Westminster, Storey’s Gate, Westminster, London SW1H 9NH. The lobby of Parliament will start at 2.30pm.
We urge everyone to find out more and sign up to attend via the Speak Up For Libraries website.

You can also follow Speak Up For Libraries on Twitter and on Facebook.
Speak Up For Libraries are a coalition of organisations and campaigners working to protect libraries and library staff, now and in the future.

Lobby Parliament to Save Our Libraries Facebook Event

SOLD - Old Marylebone Town Hall - SOLD

Contracts have now been signed for the lease of the Old Marylebone Town Hall for at least the next 35-75 years.

Although the leasee has not been publicly announced, all Westminster City Council Services have one year to vacate the building with the exception of the Westminster Registrars.

Under new its occupation the intention is for the building to retain the registrars for weddings and its other services whilst the rest of the building would be renovated and likely become a hotel.

The lease became an option when the council valued the work necessary to renovate the old-town hall and library annex and make both buildings DDA compliant. It's been known for some time that both buildings were structurally rusting iron girders with a fast eroding facade. Terms of the lease would place certain duties on the contracted party to execute repairs to the building.

So what will happen to Marylebone Library?

Well right now it's unclear. The council has promised that it's intention is to maintain a library service in the Marylebone area but groups such as the Marylebone society are sceptical since the council had previously promised that it's intention was to repair both building and return the Marylebone Library to its original building.

To those of you concerned about anything we've said so far, you can contact Councillor Harvey Marshall who is the ward councillor for Marylebone High Street by clicking this link or Councillor Coline Barrow who is the current Leader of the council.

Charing Cross Library Too Expensive to Axe

So it's both good news and bad news.

Since the installation of the new self-service kiosks that have been slowly replacing staff members in Libraries across westminster, the council has Incurred an overspend of £200k. In a bid to cover this one off debt, the heads of WCC planned to close Charing cross library and Westminster music library in Victoria street and move some of the services and staff from both locations onto one floor of the Westminster Reference Library building. Funds would be generated from the selling of the Charing Cross Library building and a major reduction of staff members.

This was to be an immense project which would mean major building works on all sites to make Charing Cross commercially sellable and allow Westminster Reference library to facilitate some lending services.

Building works on Charing Cross were necessary to comply with certain rules that restricted the use of the building to educational purposes only and therefore reduced its commercial appeal. All building works had to be completed either before or after the Olympics however the financial department has now determined that the project is too expensive to pursue within the next four years and the building will continue to provide a full service as they are now.

So where's the bad news? Well Westminster libraries still has to find a saving of £40k this financial year (just under the value of a bonus for a councillor or a senior execs working for Westminster) and another £160k in 2012/13 (which we fear could mean the closure of another library).

It's important to note that this is a one-off overspend and that any permanent measures to resolve this debt would be disproportionate, unnecessary and excessive so we'll be keeping an eye out for how this develops.

Watch this space for updates.

Tri-borough is a stepping stone to privatisation

Unfortunately, in spite of an overwhelming response from staff and readers, thousands of signatures collected and lots more positive action, WCC remained adamant in their positioning and acted against the will of its people in deciding to close St. James's Library. Nevertheless, we thank you all wholeheartedly for your support. It is more valuable and useful than we can express with words, it keeps us going.

It’s not all doom and gloom for our public services! On Wednesday 30th, 20.000 London public sector workers marched to parliament to protect their pensions. According to the Guardian, This was the biggest public sector strike action in 30 years, and it’s not even counting the vast amounts who attended picket lines or refused to go to work on the day.

With around 2million public sector workers on strike and over 50,000 union members, students, parents and patients and more on the London March alone; as a single national action this has been a great success.

Despite comments from David Cameron that this was a 'damp squib', every poll shows public support for the action well in excess of 60%, with some polls showing 80% of the public trusting the public sector over Mr Cameron.

Many managers in Westminster have been supportive of the action and more and more people are getting involved in the protection of public services. These are good times of cooperation and collaboration. Now it’s especially important that we remain well informed and in close communication.

Below you will find some information on what is really going on in Westminster

Tri-borough

As you know, WCC is currently merging some of its services with the boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham. The purpose behind this is of course to cut costs. Last month a tri-borough management team for libraries was recruited, and by April 2012 restructuring will reach frontline staff (WCC libraries will lose 2 more full-time Library positions).

This project was hailed by the BBC and The Guardian as the Salvation for libraries with the promise that no libraries will be closed due to its implementation. As these articles were being written Westminster was quickly making moves to close St James's Library whilst planning the axing of CHX library and many of it's staff members and services.

There are some positive assets to Tri-borough: hopefully, using the same system will facilitate communication between services across the boroughs, as well as saving on stock and equipment contracts. Further there will be some savings due to the reduction of upper management positions and as the 7th phase of redundancies in Westminster since 2008, this is the first time senior managers will have to face the guillotine before frontline staff.

Unfortunately, it would seem that Tri-borough has actually turned out to be more expensive than the previous setup. We suspect that this is not unexpected. Some staff members have been deployed from their usual jobs to dedicate themselves exclusively to writing “casual” reports on stock suppliers and consortia whilst various libraries have been visited by surveyors without much warning or explanation.

The head of Tri-borough Libraries David Ruse and the Tri-borough team have been providing conflicting information on the issue of “outsourcing” the combine services to a private company, trust or charitable group. Mr Ruse and WCC heads are very careful to make no clear statements sometimes saying outsourcing is unlikely in the near future whilst the project plows forward with regular reports from the tri-borough forum reinstating that they are enroute to this ultimate objective.

All these mysterious moves lead us to believe that WCC are looking to make Council services attractive to private companies. There are various companies interested in taking over the running of the Council, such as LSSI, Cavita and  Laing: Savings on staff, plus harmonization of stock and contracts make us very attractive to these corporations.

Privatisation will result in libraries running for profit instead of as community services. So we would be paying for them from our taxes, but also as service users, for example, by being charged to become library members.

We are as keen as you are to ensure our services remain public, and endeavour to keep you informed of the latest developments. So please do let us know your thoughts on this, and feel free to pass this on to your friends and colleagues.

Dossier of Hypocrisy - by Unite

The Unite union have compiled a “dossier of hypocrisy” that shows how long Cabinet ministers would have to work on the MPs pension scheme to get what local government workers can expect to receive.

George Osborne would only have to work 1 ½ years to earn a typical LGPS pension of £5,600/year.

A typical local government worker would have to work 124 years to get a pension equal to what Communities & Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles would receive if he retired in 2015.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has a pension almost 10 times higher than the average health worker.

A typical public sector worker would have to work 3 lifetimes to earn Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude’s pension & 2 lifetimes to earn Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander’s pension

These are the entitlements for Ministers in a Government that has the audacity to say [public sector] pensions are gold plated!

Why We Strike

According to the Chancellor, The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is no longer sustainable due to people living 10 years longer than they did 40 years ago, and that the greedy working class members of gold plated pension schemes need to accept this and the coalition changes to the LGPS.

These changes include increasing the pension age from 65 to 68, increasing member contributions to the scheme while decreasing employer contributions although members will be claiming less than they do now.

So what defence do public sector workers have to this?

1. The LGPS has a positive cash flow, with income from investments and contributions exceeding expenditure on benefits by £4-5billion every year.

2.members contribute an average of 6.6% to the scheme with higher earners paying proportionately more

3.the average employer contribution rate for current service is 12.2%. In the private sector the comparable employer contribution average is 15%

4.the chancellor intends to raise 1Bn from LGPS scheme members by making employees pay an increased average of 9.6% for future service while the employer pays 9%.

5. In April 2008, reformed schemes were launched which reduced the cost to employers year on year and increased the average member contribution from 5.8% to 6.6% to compensate for people living longer.

6. Further increases announced by the chancellor will not increase funding to the scheme but will operate as a tax on pension saving. 3.8bn will be be used to help pay off the money used to bail out the banks.

7. 7000 employers participate in the 101 LGPS including private companies and charities. 75% of local government employees, more than 4 million people are members of the scheme.

8. The LGPS fund currently holds more than £150billion in investments and assets, enough to pay benefits for over 20 years

9. The average pension payment from the LGPS is around £4,200 a year but only £2,870 per year for women due to lower income.

10. The chancellor wants employees to work to 68 instead of 65 before pension claims can be made. This will mean teachers, nurses, library staff will not be able to retire before this regardless of the pressures posed in workforces with ever decreasing staff and ever increasing pressure.

11. Pay will increase inline with the consumer price index rather than the retail price index which represents the true cost of living. As pay remains low against inflation, so will pension contributions from both the employee and the employer.

Unison, GMB, unite, Napo, Ucatt, Aspect, FBU, NIPSA, NUJ, NUT, and the coalition of resistance as well as more than 60% of the public are just a few groups who oppose these changes and support strike action on the 30th November 2011.

Tri-borough: The Bold New Plan: Staff Cuts... Again

The Tri-borough project which aims to combine various services across the three local authorities Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster Council was hailed as the great saviour of libraries and other public services in the age of austerity. According to both the BBC and the Guardian, not a single library would close due to the groundbreaking savings that would come from this bold new project.

So now that St James' library has closed, and Hammersmith and Fulham has relinquished responsibility of two libraries we all sit with baited breaths waiting to see how much more Tri-borough can save. The plan is that across all three boroughs, the Tri-borough project will save £33M per year across all affected services and emphasis has been put on savings being generated by combining purchase contracts and sharing services.

In Libraries the expected saving is £1.1M per year across the three local authorities since the service is already very inexpensive, most of those savings will come from further reducing staff numbers across all three boroughs... bold?... Yes... New... No!

Every Library across all three boroughs that now has a self-service machine has seen a reduction of staff due to the introduction of those machines to the detriment of the level of service Westminster prides itself on. As the project announces progression towards its first £1M saving and in Libraries this would be through staff reductions, one can only hope that the architects of these great new remember the service's obligation to the public above financial conveniences and profit.

Eric Pickles! Save our libraries, not our bins!

Courtesy of Digital Democracy a discussion ensues which yet again challenges the Government's position with regards to the economic viability of maintaining public services.

The arguement has always been that the money is simply not there, yet 'Suddenly the government has found £250,000,000.00 to spend on weekly bin collections while our services are cut!' Digital Democracy suggests as a Solution that the executive should Instead save our jobs, libraries, universities, soldiers + sailors + pilots, leisure centres, social services, coastguards, Policemen, youth centres, lollipop people, pothole repairs and road gritting.

Join the debate

WESTMINSTER CONSERVATIVES SPEND £2.5 MILLION ON 10 ‘TEMPORARY’ STAFF

WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL LABOUR GROUP

PRESS NOTICE

4^th August 2011

WESTMINSTER CONSERVATIVES SPEND £2.5 MILLION ON 10 ‘TEMPORARY’ STAFF

Westminster Council has spent almost £2.5 million on 10 ‘temporary’ staff, nine of whom who have worked for the Council for over two years, according to Council figures revealed by Labour Councillors. Of the 10 ‘temporary’ staff, only two, an Environmental Health Officer and a Deputy Services Manager in the Family Recovery Team, could be said to be working in front-line services.

In addition, the Council employs 34 temporary staff earning over £300 a day.

Earlier this week, Labour Councillors revealed that Westminster Council is spending £186,000 a year on a 6-person 'Campaigns Team', while at the same time they say that they do not have enough money to afford £4,100 a year to give 50 partially sighted people free access to the RNIB Talking Book. The 50 partially sighted residents had their free access to the RNIB Talking Book axed as part of the Council’s cuts.

And in June, Westminster Council agreed to spend £960,000 on five ‘Transformation and Change Management’ consultants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the next 12 months, with the option to extend the contract for a further six months bringing the total cost to Westminster Council Tax payers to £1,440,000. Labour Councillors attacked this decision at a time when the Council is making £60 million of cuts, half of which are to front line services, including the axing of services to 3,000 elderly residents with moderate care needs, the closure of the St James’s Library in Victoria and the cutting of over 70 weekend street sweepers in the north of Westminster.

Councillor Paul Dimoldenberg, Leader of the Labour Group, said;

“How can Westminster Conservatives justify spending £2.5 million on 10 so-called ‘temporary’ staff at a cost of up to £745 a day when they are axing front line services to the most vulnerable residents? Westminster Conservatives are guilty of wasting the Council Tax payments of hard-working Westminster residents. This is an absolute disgrace and a national scandal. Why don’t Eric Pickles and Grant Shapps condemn this blatant misuse of public money?”

ENDS

Could this be the future of Mayfair Library?

For many years Westminster Council has been attempting to close one of our small but much loved Libraries in the hope of achieving savings and reducing its liabilities. If not for our determined opposition to its closure, there would be no Library in the building that is currently being leased to Westminster at absolutely no charge.

We prepared ourselves to renew our fight for OUR taxes to be spent on OUR libraries upon the government's announcement that it would be making major cuts to public services with the aim of reducing the national deficit. But as the months passed, it seemed that all the preparation to fight for Mayfair was for nought as our councillors assured us that the library would not be closing this year and that exciting changes would be coming to the library service in Westminster and beyond.

Still wary of Mayfair's closure, we decided to lend our hand to any activities that would preserve our service and its wonderful staff members. It was at this point that our Councillors and Westminster Management suggested the idea of residents assisting with the rounding up of donations and volunteers to save Mayfair Library, and only Mayfair.

All the while St. James's Library which is far busier, has more customers, and is in a location with no immediate alternative was announced to be closing by mid-august. We found it strange that they would close such a busy well used library while assuring us that Mayfair would remain open.

It was at this point we realised that they were scared of us. Not all residents, but the active ones for sure.

But then we discovered what was being proposed in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham (who Westminster Libraries have been meeting with on a regular basis as part of the new Tri-borough project).

'The council intends that Barons Court Library will be run as a volunteer-led service and the  Sands End Library will be relocating to a new purpose built setting still within the Sands End ward at Hurlingham & Chelsea School on Peterborough Road.'

It would seem that they've been grooming us to take over the responsibilities that we've elected them and paid them very well to manage and they didn't have the guts to tell us to our faces.

CEO's Wages equivalent to 105,381 meals on wheels or 7 school teachers

Westminster has introduced a wonderful new gadget on they're internal employee intranet-site that allows staff and managers to calculate how much their spending and savings amount to for local residents and services.

You entered a total of £ 268,723.00 (Mike More's Annual income not including benefits). In Westminster, this is the equivalent of:

390 people’s council tax (based on Band D)
105,381 meals on wheels (£2.55 is the subsidised charge for a two course hot meal)
removal of waste from 2,465 households (it costs the council on average £109 per household per year to dispose of waste
including street litter and dumped rubbish)
7 social worker(s) (based on recent vacancies and represents band 3 step 4 on Westminster’s pay scale)
7 teacher(s) (based on scale point 6 for classroom teachers working in inner London)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You might remember in a previous post we told you of the Tory councillor who said £3M was not a significant enough saving to justify a 5% reduction in wages for those earning over £100k - If you not confused yet just wait for 'Harmonisation'.

UNDERCOVER CUTS STILL HITTING LIBRARIES WHILE WESTMINSTER PAYS NEW BOSSES MORE THAN THE PM

So the 26th March 2011 was a day that showed politicians that apathy was a sign of its own failure to engage the public rather than an indication that the executive had a free hand and could do whatever it wants without recourse. Since then, outwardly it would seem that all is now quiet on the libraries front with regards to cuts and closures...  unfortunately this would be a flawed perception.


With a planned 40% reduction in Westminster's Library stock budget, a reduction in staffing hours by 14 full time staff members for September, the closure of St James' and Charing cross library as well as the Sale of the Old Marylebone town hall and Old Marylebone Library plus, the ongoing Tri-borough project; as well as more planned cuts for 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. It would appear that both local and national politicians have merely been reminded to keep up the spin while those in the know keep up the fight.


It is no wonder Labour councillor Paul Dimoldenberg has called for an inquiry into Westminster Council’s publicity claims that it is ‘maintaining library services’.


To add insult to injury, the cuts continue at a time when the council has announced that it will be appointing a new Strategic Director for Adult Services to work full-time on the Tri-borough project that is still struggling to find savings, and a new role for a Strategic Director for Regeneration, Housing and 'Worklessness' which will also carry a 'significant salary' by the council's own admission.


So what is a significant salary? The director of ‘regeneration, housing and “worklessness”’ will be on a pay scale of £138,473 – 187,473, and the director of adult social care will be on £260,000, which combined is well above the cost of running St. James's Library (£357K including staffing, rent, book stock budget, etc). these Salaries have been agreed despite local government minister Eric Pickles urging local authorities to avoid paying salaries higher than that of the prime minister (£142,500).

Evening Standard

With the council already axing 350 jobs and 500 more redundancies on the way, it's not surprising critics have hailed it as 'massively offensive' that two members of staff can be paid more than the cost to run St. James' library which is due to close by the end of august this year. 

One employee at Westminster city council has said '...it beggars belief that they are suggesting such salaries while we are in the process of experiencing drastic cuts to essential public services, including mass redundancies here at WCC....Westminster is cutting Sure Start, community and youth services, social care, meals-on-wheels, community engagement, libraries, domestic violence, and other services.  There are further savage and unnecessary, ideologically-driven cuts to come.... ' 

others have said  '.... the director of regeneration, housing and worklessness will be paid to oversee the social cleansing of our community, as the cap on housing benefit forces thousands out of their homes.  The director of adult care – who, on over a quarter of a million a year, will be the highest paid public sector worker in the country – will be implementing brutal, swingeing cuts that will see social services withdrawn from thousands of vulnerable residents with genuine support needs beyond their control....'

If this wasn't enough, it has been announced that Westminster council has paid £600,000 in compensation to a firm it axed as it's parking contractor after only a few days. When awarding the biggest parking contract in the UK, Westminster had failed to follow it's own rules by giving the contract to a company £9 million more expensive than it's current contractors. The punchline here is that the council considers this spend a 'saving' rather than evidence of incompetence which is consistent with it's track record thus far.

Evening Standard

“Westminster Council spends over £3 million a year on its press and publicity department and the Council has demonstrated beyond doubt that this money would be much better spent on library books and librarians than misleading Council spin to cover the extent and depth of the Conservative cuts”

Petition to Save St James's Library

The council has decided that the closure of St. James's Library will save £357,000 of Westminster's £84M cuts target. This 'saving' is minute when weighed against the detrimental social effect the closure will have on Westminster's residents, workers and visitors. At the same time, the council aims to employ two new members of staff who will both be paid more than the Prime Minister from money saved as part of such cuts.

Each year St James's Library makes approximately 70 staff visits to schools and nurseries as well as accommodating 170 school and nursery visits to the library itself. St James's Library is a small but busy library that services, schools, nurseries, residents, students, workers, tourists and the vulnerable throughout London and Westminster.

This library must be protected for all.

Please sign the Petition at the above address and share the link with as many friends, family and associates as possible. You will need an email address and to register a Westminster address and postcode to verify that you live, work or study in Westminster.

http://petitions.westminster.gov.uk/KEEPJAS/

If you study at any of the following institutions here are the addresses:

University of Westminster
309 Regent Street
London W1B 2UW

The School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS)
hornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG

University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT

Also here is a list of libraries with their addresses if you work or study there:
Westminster Libraries

TriBorough project under-way

The Triborough project marches on as the Heads of Westminster, Kennsington & Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham meet with local Unisons to discuss ways to move forward. So far the project aims to save £1.6M between all three boroughs in the first year and £35M in the next.


The claim is that these savings will prodominantly come from a reduction in senior staff members i.e. We will only need one Chief Executive Officer earning more than the Prime Minister rather than three. This may also be the case for some department heads and local managers, although the aim is to maintain some local autonony.


less publicised but possibly offering the bulk of savings is the amalgamation of contracts between all three boroughs for stock, cleaning, etc, and the harmonising of staff wages across all three authorities.


In a recent Triborough report, the update on libraries is as follows:


'The Proposals include a proposition for a combined three borough library service, whilst retaining borough branding on buildings. This will help reduce management costs and overheads.
A future option is floated – that at a future date and subject to further option appraisal, this combined library service is transferred to external management – perhaps through a new charitable trust – to provide enhanced opportunities for library users and other residents to be involved and to add volunteering effort.'

Tri-borough Proposal Report

Further evidence of the direction for this project can be seen by the actions of The Director of Libraries, David Ruse  who has made visits to Westminster Library and a Kensington and Chelsea school to consider the possibility of merging the two in a similar style to the new Pimlico Academy.


It's no wonder "Only 29% of residents say they feel informed about how the council plans to deal with reductions in their budget" in a triborough survey that questioned 500 resisdents across all three boroughs.

Apparently "Two thirds of residents (63%) say they trust the council to make the right spending decisions." which is a shame considering only "Half of residents (50%) have heard of current discussions on possible sharing of services between the authorities, but only a small proportion (one in ten) say they know a great deal or fair amount about this"

Photographs of the Protests outside Westminsters' City Hall and Westminsters'

Protest and Demonstration against Tory cuts outside Westminster's City Hall building 

Protest and Demonstration against Tory cuts outside Westminster's Council House 

Library Closures Row in High Court and Support Grows for Libraries Rebellion

These two stories are well worth a read

Library Closures Row in High Court

Support Grows for Libraries Rebellion

When St James's Library closes in September, we all suffer

Its obvious to anyone who has spent any amount of time in a library in recent years that the building is not merely a storage space for books. For some, its sanctuary, others an invaluable tool but most go with the intention of seeing a friendly human face that can help then with whatever problem they may have. Only those who are wealthy enough and self-serving enough could detach themselves from passions and needs of these people for unnecessary and short-term gain.

Those who will be most negatively affected by the closure of St. James' Library live in and around the Old Pye Estate, particularly the elderly who have mobility issues. Also the local schools will have to seek alternative support, in 2009/10 there were 166 class and nursery visits with staff attending schools and nurseries on 69 occasions. On top of this, a high proportion of students from Westminster City School are key library users who will certainly feel the effects of the closure.

Please read:

"We had Dean in again today. He's a young man with cerebral palsy. Mark, our manager, does all he can to help Dean. He helps Dean out with daily essentials and attempts to find him care and housing help. Dean can be quite demanding. 

We had some more shouters in this week. Customers who, for one reason or another, take against the staff and other customers and become noisy and disruptive. We've had to ask some to leave. Others have brought in all their worldly goods. Others have been so unhygienic as to attract complaints from other customers. We've asked them to leave, clean up, find somewhere for their luggage, then they're welcome to return.
We've had people in who've obviously been mentally unwell, who have asked for help. For things both relevant and irrelevant. And they've been helped. Provided with information. Advice where possible. And then gone on their way."

"We've had customers who we've suspected of being drunk, or high. We've dealt with them. Humoured them, mostly. Seen that they've got everything they needed.

Most of the customers have been great. As usual. friendly, engaged, interested, talkative. We've spoken to them about their reading habits, about their library use and any concerns, general chit-chat and small talk and some, who have forged friendships with the staff, have stayed and talked a little longer.
Some customers, without the debility of mental illness or addiction, can prove a handful nonetheless. These customers are recognised and persevered with. All staff know the signs and spot the recidivists. We attempt to engage with them. We attempt to make their visits fruitful and enjoyable. We pursue their complaints. Log their requests. Apologise for their dissatisfaction.
Soon, at St James's we won't be doing that any more. I think we'll be missed. By all sorts."

"We have quite a few peers in. The occasional MP. We service the House of Commons library. Lots of lobbyists. Members of the Royal Household. Scotland Yard. We get quite a few soldiers on their way to and from war-zones. We get their wives in with their kids. We get office workers, bureaucrats, shop assistants, traffic wardens, street sweepers, caterers, barristers, flight attendants, pensioners, bankers, directors, schoolkids, carers... American, Poles, Italians, Japanese, French, Russians, Somalis, Irish, Ethiopians, Spanish...

We'll miss them, too."

The Director for Libraries Earns £103,689 plus private health insurance of £2,368 and car allowance of £2,808

Unfortunately this post is quite a large one but it will be more than worth the space.

On the 2nd March 2011 Marylebone Library closed early at 6pm on the advice of the security team and police blockage who were there to protect councillors who were to attend the cabinet meeting in the same building from the angry mob of mothers and toddlers who waited outside in the cold. 

During the meeting one of the labour minority suggested that all staff earning over £100,000 should take a pay-cut of 5% if only to show that the distribution of austerity measures were not completely targeting the poor. He was promptly dismissed by one of the Conservative councillors who claimed that the £3M saving that this would generate was not worth bothering with, the irony being that Library assistants working Sundays will be expected to take a reduction in wages to save £40k. 

The Old Marylebone Town Hall and Marylebone Library, which is currently up for sale, was host to a cabinet of conservative councillors who denied making cuts to services in areas where staff had received letters that they were vulnerable to redundancy. 

Consistently the Labour party was blamed for the GLOBAL BANKING CRISIS (although it was accepted that the banks were partially to blame) despite, WCC officers investing £17.5M into Icelandic banks when most knew it was a bad idea, £4M on temp staff one of whom has earned £745 per day for the last 6 years and with two senior officers earning more than the Prime Minister and 25 earning over £100,000 plus health plans, plus bonuses, plus car and accommodation allowance.

The Director for Libraries, David Ruse is announced to be earning £103,689 in 2009/2010, plus private health insurance of £2,368 and car allowance of £2,808 and with the a bonus of £35,000 and further entitlement for an annual increase in salary. The document below gives details of earning for the council's senior officers, please follow the link below.


SENIOR STAFF PAY AT WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCIL 2009/10.

Marylebone Library to close today at 6.30pm due to protest outside the Council House

At 6.30pm on Wednesday 2nd February, Marylebone Library and Information Services will close early due to 'unforseen circumstances'.

The unforseen circumstance in question happens to be the monthly cabinet meeting where long standing conservative councillors for Westminster decide how best to spend the tax payer's money and on what services.

On the 21st February 2011, the councillors met on the 17th Floor of the City Hall to approve the proposed cuts to services and deflect attention away from their own culpability and those of the bankers in causing the financial situation we're now in. 

In another bid to convince the cabinet that spending cuts which disproportionately and adversely affect the poor and the vulnarable are not an inevitability and that other options should be considered. Especially since...

“We are taking council spending back to the level generally in terms of grants, that it was in 2007. I see no reason at all why they should not continue with the very well funded network of libraries.”

David Cameron 9/2/11

We are therefore urging everyone to join our lobby of the Cabinet on Wednesday the 2nd March 2011 at 6pm outside Marylebone's Council House building, 109-117 Marylebone road, London NW1 5PS, so that Councillors are made aware of the strong feelings against these closures.