Below is the general response by Emily Arkell, the cabinet member responsible for Libraries, to letters querying the cuts:
Thank you for writing to us about Haringey’s libraries – and the review of library operations that we’ve undertaken as part of our budget planning for the next few years.
Our starting point is to defend libraries. Through some of the deepest budget cuts to local government in modern times we have kept all of our libraries open – and kept the second longest opening hours in London. We believe in public libraries and the public good that they provide.
In case there is any doubt, we are not closing any libraries. We know how many young people rely on libraries for a quiet space to study. We know how many people who can’t afford internet at home need the free access that libraries offer.
We are protecting the service for the people who need it most. We are only considering reducing opening hours at times when there is low footfall. Libraries will always be open at peak times.
We are having to contemplate these changes to hours because funding for day-to-day spending is so tight. Austerity wiped more than 40% from our revenue budget. The dramatic rise in inflation and interest rates over the last few years has hit local councils in the same way that it has everyone else. This government’s defunding of local government and mismanagement of the economy means that we’re now having to consider changes that we haven’t before – but we are doing so in a way that protects our most vulnerable residents and protects those in the greatest need.
We know some misinformation has been circulating about the scale of the changes we’re making. The truth is that this reduction in opening hours would reduce the revenue budget for libraries by less than 16% – nowhere close to the 30%+ that has been put about.
We’ve invested in extensive library renovations over recent years (we’ve been able to do this because the funding for renovations is not day-to-day spending and comes from a different budget). Alexandra Park library, Highgate, Hornsey and Muswell Hill are just a few examples. We’ve invested in renovations because our libraries are here to stay – and we want them to do more, not less, wherever possible.
We want to do that with our residents, coproducing the library services that we’ll have in future. In December we consulted on the proposed council budget for next year (and the years beyond) – including a review of library opening hours, use of self-service machines and volunteer staff. We would like the engagement period for our yearly budget to be longer, but national government only publishes its funding settlement for local government in December and we have to take a final budget to Cabinet by early February.
The budget consultation was just the start of our engagement with residents on these proposals for libraries. There will now be extensive coproduction work with residents and community groups on changes at each local library.
We’ve listened to what people have said over the last two months and are rethinking the suggestion to introduce self-service machines or trial community-run libraries. Instead we intend to engage widely with residents and Friends of Libraries groups to explore all possible options for safeguarding our library service in a long-term sustainable way, within the reduced resources that will be available to the council.
The draft budget published in December was subject to a full EQIA (Equalities Impact Assessment). There will be individual EQIAs for each library on the impact of reduced opening hours for the different groups of people who use them.
We’ll be coproducing our wider libraries strategy over the coming months with local people too – to design a service that maximises public benefit and prioritises the people who need our libraries most. That process will begin shortly and we’d very much like to invite you to join it.
We know that we’ll need to find new ways for libraries to bring in revenue to cover their running costs. Alongside stakeholders and residents, we’ll look at how more community groups and projects can work in libraries and any other opportunities that are appropriate to host. For example, Alexandra Park library currently rents space to Barclays to offer banking services in lieu of its old local branch. The education provider Kumon works out of our libraries too. We need to make libraries a sustainable operation – so that they’ll be here long into the future.
Nationally, more than 800 libraries have been closed since austerity began in 2010. That hasn’t happened in Haringey because libraries – and the people who need them – are our priority. That won’t change.
The work we’re doing now is to secure our libraries for the future – and build a better, more targeted service around the needs of local people. We want local people to be at the heart of that process, coproducing something that does more for our communities not less.
Best wishes,
Emily
Councillor Emily Arkell
Labour member for Bounds Green ward
Cabinet Member for Culture, Communities and Leisure
Replies
This letter feels extremely hand-wavy! Can we get some clarity:
- When are the opening times going to change for our Library?
- When are the consultations going to start and end?
- What other concrete options are there other than reducing opening times?
Hi Ben,
Yes, well we did ask SAPL if they could give us an update on the campaign, but haven't heard anything. So presumably the Haringey Libraries friends' groups (FORE) presented their deputation to the Council Cabinet on 6 Feb, and got nowhere with their 4 excellent requests? Including one for a consultation focusing particularly on the Library cuts (as Enfield are doing at the moment). As far as the Council are concerned, their consultation - on the budget in general - ended on 14 January.
I've listed the proposals for libraries that the Council presented in their consultation at the bottom of this post (document here), and it seems that they've now abandoned the idea of cutting staff and using volunteers instead - but presumably still have to find the £676k per year that this would have saved. The amount of opening hours to cut apparently depends on footfall (though this doesn't take into account that different demog. groups use the library at different times - the mornings, which may be cut, are particularly important for carers with children.
It has been suggested that they could divert some of the spending intended for the Leisure Centres (operating costs) when they're taken in-house later this year (also mentioned in the budget document) to libraries, Also, there's income from hiring out the 3 rooms now available on the first floor of AP library - up to £222k per year at their current charging.
Alessandra Rossetti is pursuing some investigations on this issue.
The next SAPL meeting is this Saturday 24th Feb (AP Lib room 1 upstairs), and the budget will be finalised at the full Council meeting on 4 March.
Budget proposals for H. Libraries:
S19
Variation of library opening hours - The number of visitors to libraries in
the borough varies from one branch to another at different times of the
day. Based on footfall analysis we know that library use is typically lowest in
mornings. Young people have a need for somewhere to study in the evenings
and libraries are ideal as a free and safe community space to work in. We want to
look at varying the opening hours of our libraries to times when they are most
heavily used, which could include later in the evenings, allowing us to allocate
resources in a more targeted way. Library buildings and facilities could be made
available to other services, even when the library service itself is not operating
e.g., Community Hub teams and Voluntary Community Sector organisations.
The proposed saving is based on reviewing hours at the six branch libraries
(Alexandra Park, Coombes Croft, Highgate, Muswell Hill, St Ann’s, Stroud Green
& Harringay) with a mixture of mornings and afternoons, as well as reducing
opening times at the three main libraries Hornsey, Marcus Garvey, and Wood
Green. This will be based on demand and demographics, to ensure libraries
remain accessible to all. The service is currently carrying vacancies and agency
cover which will reduce the need for any proposed redundancies. No library
building would be closed.
Total -£675k
S20
Introduction of self- service technology in libraries - The proposal is
to introduce self-service technology in libraries. Further work is required to
establish feasibility, based on learning from other boroughs; it would require
investment in digital and other technologies e.g., CCTV but has the potential
to reduce staffing by 40%. This could be introduced potentially along with a
community run library service option such as developing services jointly with
local communities but remain part of the library statutory network as has
been introduced in other boroughs (e.g., Camden and Barnet). It could also sit
alongside use of library buildings by other public services and agencies, enabling
users to access, check out or return library items when using those other
services. No library building would be closed. The saving is modelled on a similar
reduction in numbers of library staff to the previous proposal, but later in the
Medium-Term Financial Strategy period to enable the detailed feasibility work to
be done.
2025-26 -304 2026-27 -372 Total -£676k
S21
Ending provision of hardcopy magazines and newspapers in libraries - The
proposal is to stop providing hard copy newspapers and magazines in libraries.
Newspapers and magazines are now available on Pressreader which provides
thousands of newspapers and magazines from around the globe. Many library
services that stopped newspapers and magazines during COVID lockdown have
not reintroduced them. Staff are available in all libraries to assist residents to
access Pressreader online.
Total -£30k