Re~Stirred Forum

Barnard, we are going through some tough austere times - let's for the time being avoid the blame game of whose fault these austere times are due. We are where we are.

Other Councils - Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle - are closing community libraries and their mobile library service to fund this short fall. In Birmingham, no library will close and the mobile library service (which is on my portfolio) is untouched. Yes, we are reducing library hours and the minimum the libraries will be open is four days a week, down from five days a week.

This report gives a minimum level of service that the constituencies must maintain, plus it provides a solid foundation from which we can begin to increase library hours once we get through these austere times.

Fair enough but why not be honest about it? Your previous thread title was misleading. It could have been, as above:

'We are reducing library hours and the minimum the libraries will be open is four days a week, down from five days a week.'

My previous thread was about Kings Heath Library, which the local Labour Party have been claiming will be reduced to opening two days a week.....plus they have claimed on one of their latest leaflets that "The Council have announced plans to close many libraries around the city".

So the title of the thread is correct.

I have to say the table Barnard reproduces is rather odd; why are decreases in opening times displayed as positive values and the one increase displayed as a negative figure? I think if all constituencies had had cuts it might be ok to show these as positive figures, but somewhat odd (no doubt Andy Foster will say 'cynical') to say a negative cut when you actually mean increase!

Second sentence of your post in that thread:

'The report I am presenting is the new operating model for all community libraries across Birmingham.'

The archives have been reduced to three days a week, and the opening hours from 41 (a mistake by me before) to 18. And (see previous) the reference stack is closed. This is not just a problem for specialists; it affects many local and family historians. And it isn't, by a long way, just because of the move.

Martin is refusing to understand that - to try to put it politely - some senior managers he deals with are no longer committed to libraries in the way we have always understood them. John Dolan has pointed out that more than half of the city's qualified librarians have been made redundant - a frightening statistic. (Martin's sole reaction to this was to complain that the Post wouldn't print a reply.)

I don't know what has happened to Martin except that he seems all mouth and no ears. A few weeks back I went for a drink with him to try to patch up our old friendship and talk about things we agree on, like not having an elected mayor. It was not possible to discuss these in a antagonistic atmosphere in which the discussion was pushed into things where we are far apart - like Martin's deep and mindless hostility to the NHS. Impossible to get through to him. I mention this here because his postings on this and other threads show exactly the same mindset to the one I encountered.

Please can some of his supporters on here try to get through to him? What is going on is too important to let slide.

Yes, I know that, since I was explaining the background to why Kings Heath Library was having a one-hour increase.

If we use your argument to its logical conclusion, then I should have called the thread "impact of the global economic crisis, part 1012".

Sorry Barnard - I thought that table had been produced by the council!!

Andy, you really do make the Labour Party sound like a religious cult at times. Maybe it's you who needs to take time out from the Labour Party and re-examine your views on life, the universe and everything 42. You might find it quite liberating.

Why would you want to do that?

As you say, and without apportioning blame, the key message of your report is that opening hours of libraries are being reduced, not that an individual library has a modest increase in hours. A thread title which reflected that would have been more honest.

Although the reports before the Cabinet state the cuts are 12% but they fail to account for the Sutton
Coldfield Library which is currently closed but they add 40 hours to the figures for that library in the
new proposals but zero hours in the current opening hours thereby skewing the overall results.

What ever way you look at it this its still a very large cut in services and if compared to closing libraries
that would equal the closure of 5 or more libraries.

During the debate about the new central library critics suggested that it would lead to cuts in local
community libraries, which we were assured at the time that would not happen, but even before it
is finished it now seems that the critics were correct.

Below is a table I have made of the recommend cut in hours per constituency.

You can see that some constituencies do better than others with Perry Bar actually getting an increase
of one hour followed by surprise-surprise by Edgbaston with a cut of only 6 hours (5.63%) then Hall Green
with a cut of 15 hours (9.32%) virtually solely at Balsall Heath Library, that Library is one with the greatest
needs due to its levels of Multiple Deprivation in its catchment area.

Worse off are Selly Oak (21.85%), Ladywood (20.44%) and Erdington (19.51%)



Libraries in Perry Barr all had 1or 2 day a week reductions in their opening hours from the beginning of 2011 because of low staffing levels which is why the new proposals make it appear that they are doing relatively well under the new proposals. If their opening hours prior to Jan 2011 were used when they were open for a total of 156 hours a week they have in fact lost 38 hours which makes it the worst hit constituency in terms of hours ( I'll leave it to someone else to do the %ages).

This is another reason these reductions are a cause for concern no matter what anyone says. Cuts/reductions in one year are likely to be followed by yet more in future years especially as the pressure on budgets continues with a gradual whiitling away of a service to the community. Despite all the talk about there not being any closures I'm not holding much optimism for the service in Birmingham at the moment. After all the joke that has been doing the rounds for some time is that "The Library of Birmingham" is called that because by the time it opens it will be virtually the only one left.

By the way I can't see that being open 26 hours a week equates to true 4 days a week opening. In reality it should be open for days a week for part of the day.

Thanks Barnard, sorry for bothering you, as I say I'd thought you'd reproduced it from elsewhere...

Nobody wants to reduce services, lest of all me. However, we are where we are with the national financial crisis and I think that what is proposed for Birmingham libraries is a very good proposal when you consider what other Councils are doing to their library services. No libraries in Birmingham will close!

You may say that the reduction in library hours is equivalent to library closures. I disagree, there is a huge difference. Once a library closes, that it! It's finished! Never to re-open. A reduction in library hours is reversible.

I note that you don't believe these reduction in library hours will be reversed and the libraries will eventually close. That may be the case if Labour take control in May, but while the Conservative - Lib Dem coalition is in control, no community library will close. To prove this, just look at our record.

£4.3million has been invested in improving our library buildings since 2004. A further £1.1million is being invested in the 2011/12 financial year alone - Kings Heath Library, Selly Oak Library and Hall Green Library are getting new roofs. In the next financial year an additional £1million is being invested in our library buildings. Is this the sign of an administration abandoning its community libraries.

On top of this £188.8million being invested in a brand new state-of-the-art Library of Birmingham.

The previous Labour administration allowed our library buildings to rot, thinking that giving libraries lots of buckets to collect water dripping from the ceiling was weather protection. This administration is instead putting new roofs on our libraries.

Martin, my posting mentioned neither the Labour Party nor its policies. Can you explain the relevance of your reply?

The small amount of time I spend on things to do with the Labour Party is time out of my job, which involves regular use of the Central Library, a service for which you are the cabinet member. It is presently going from bad to appalling (not a comment on front line staff). That was what my comments were about. Why not try to answer them?

Andy, I've answered the question about access to the achives loads of times and you don't want to accept it. Therefore, can we agree to disagree on this issue.

Actually, I had no input into choosing which libraries had which hours. All of this has been agreed by the Constituency Chairs, which includes Cllr Tony Kennedy as Chair of Hall Green constituency.

When I make the presentation of this report on Monday, Cllr Anne Underwood, who is Chair of the Constituency Chairs, will explain how the Constituency Chairs (including Cllr Tony Kennedy) came to their decisions on these proposals.

Just to add. All Chairs of Constituencies meet once a month in the Council House to co-ordinate operations between constituencies. This report was agreed by ALL constituency chairs before I signed it off.

the public can always attend Cabinet.

You have not commented on the reduction in archives hours except to say it's due to moving to the new Library. That is clearly not true as several staff have been made redundant. I go back to that John Dolan figure which you haven't answered: more than half the qualified librarians gone.

You have only answered the question about access to the stack by saying that it isn't possible because things are being packed up for the move. That isn't true either, as a reason for no access at all (some collections may be unavailable, I understand that) as a stack day is promised, unless you stop it. And if you bother to go up the escalators on a day when the reference library is open you can see the staff on floor four doing absolutely nothing when they could be offering some sort of service. (Not their fault.) Your answer is patently extremely inadeqate (tactful word).

The destructive changes to the Central Library started under your predecessor as Cabinet Member, when the subject desks were abolished. I did think that you would take a shrewd look at what was going on and do something about it. I thought you were more likely to do that than some Labour members might have been. Stupid me for thinking that. You have just accepted everything you're told by the people who are wrecking the place.

Please, even now, will you look at the problems and try to do something about them.

Buckets -luxury! I recall using upturned wastepaper bins! And being involved in bidding for outside funding to get the roof repairs done as no one in the centre was going to do it!

I do wish that you would stop being so party political about many issues as it doesn't allow a real debate or exchange of information.
While you say that no Library will close under current coalition can you hand on heart say that there will be no further reductions in opening hours in future years? What I fear is a kind of death by a thousand cuts where services are gradually reduced until there is very little left.

And by the way if Labour do gain overall control in May I'll be happy to nag them about it too!

Hand on heart, these proposals will get us through till the end of 2013/14 financial year. By then we will know what the next government grant settlement will be for local Councils. What happens then, will depend on this new settlement.

Josie, you are right martinmullaney will always take the political view, blame an opposition that has not been in power since 2004 and thus trying to intelligently debate with him the future of libraries is pointless. On the one hand he says under the coalition no LIBARY will close before 2014, unless Labour take over.

Can he not see that what we are all concerned with is that library hours are not reduced and that libraries are not closed whoever is in power.

Apportioning blame, when your party has controlled libraries for 8 years does not move the issue on in a positive way.