closure of bromley libraries

[SE20girl]

I have heard that Bromley council are proposing to close ALL the smaller libraries, including Penge and Anerley. I find this horrific. Surely libraries are a cornerstone of local communities. Once they are gone they won't be replaced, we need to do something now. Today the proposals about selling the forests were reversed - this craziness can be stopped!

Are any campaigns in progress I am so fired up about this and never normally manage to be at all political - however, this is an outrage ...

SE20girl, there is a petition and a local anti cuts group in bromley. i can't find that much about them on the internet and they are not as obvious as neighbouring lewisham who are very well co-ordinated and visible. i don't know if this helps or if this is the right petition?

www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-anerley-library.html

My local small library is on the hit list too. i hope it doesn't happen, the ladies who work there are amazingly helpful and fantastic at their job. it will be a great loss for the local children and elderly alike.

This isn't strictly in my own policy area, so my comments will be limited, but I thought it might help to add some clarification and update.

The plans around Penge and Anerley libraries have been in the public domain for a while now, and are dependent on finding a suitable site on which to open a larger "merged" library serving the two areas. Our clear intention is to create a better library service for the north-west of the borough, albeit on one rather than two sites.

As for the wider proposals, no decision has been made yet. Last Tuesday the scrutiny committee reviewed the various options, which included the suggested closure (and reinvestment of the capital receipts) of a number of other libraries (including one in my own patch in Hayes), but opted primarily to pursue a partnership/trust route merging with Bexley's library service. This will make significant savings from reducing management costs and, potentially, rates rebates - in other words, we are looking at "back office" savings first before taking any decisions on other frontline areas.

Cllr. Neil Reddin
Portfolio Holder for Resources

Well, you could start by asking the council why they threw such enormous sums of money in to that ridiculously oversized council building covering half of central Bromley - and then why they filled it with scores upon scores of people doing "non-jobs" rather than dropping a few quid on a library.

I know for a fact that there are people "working" at bromley council whose jobs are absolute nonsense and the roles which they are employed to do are absolutely ludicrous and if I were to tell you exactly what one of them was you'd start nodding in agreement with the Daily Mail.

AlpinePony,

The points you raise are of particular interest as both property and HR come within my remit.

The spending on the Civic Centre is either essential maintenance, generates savings through lower energy bills or releases space for renting out or disposal (yes, we are working to reduce the Council's office space requirements).

However, I would be interested to know of the "non-jobs" you refer to - by all means send me a separate message if you'd prefer and will be happy to investigate.

Cllr. Neil Reddin

One of the petitions is held at the Blue Bell café, Maple Rd next to Penge library. I think the petition is against the closing of all the libraries in the Bromley area.

Apart from the whole issue of library closures, I really think it's shameful that Cllr Reddin has to answer these questions on the mumsnet site and that there's no forum facility on the Bromley Council website. I couldn't find any info about what's happening with libraries on the Bromley website. So much for transparency.