Councils make positive progress on Upper Norwood Library
CROYDON and Lambeth Councils have met to talk about the future of Upper Norwood Library.
About 200 people packed a public meeting at the Salvation Army hall in Westow Street in November, calling for the two councils to get together and speak to each other.
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Upper Norwood Library in Westow Hill
The future of the 111-year-old library, in Westow Hill, has been cast into doubt after Croydon terminated its joint agreement with Lambeth.
At the November meeting, Lambeth councillor Florence Nosegbe said she had been trying to get Croydon around the table, but to no avail.
Now both parties have met and talks have been described as "positive".
Sara Bashford, the council's cabinet for culture and sport, confirmed: "The latest update is there have been meetings in the second week of January between Lambeth and Croydon.
"We've talked about how we can move forward and it was very constructive.
"We haven't said we are closing the library, what we said is we can't work with Lambeth in the way we have in the past."
The library is unique in that it is currently funded by both local authorities - Tory-controlled Croydon and Labour-controlled Lambeth.
3 Comments
by Ivor_Shed
Sunday, January 29 2012, 8:32PM
“I liked the information I found for Selsdon Library -
Facilities:
Car Park - No
Secure Bike Rack - No
Creche - No
Public Phone - No
There were no other 'facilities' listed”
by Dayglo666
Sunday, January 29 2012, 7:40PM
“Has this news been verified by Lambeth and do they agree that talks were constructive and positive?
When Croydon and Sarah Bashford say that they "can't work with Lambeth in the way that they have in the past", what does this mean that A) they will fund Upper Norwood Library but would like to work more effectively with Lambeth or B) that they have withdrawn funding as this because it doesn't dovetail with their outsourcing of all library services and this because Upper Norwood Library is an embarrassment to Croydon as it shows them what an efficient library looks like!
Croydon library costs £8m plus p.a and costs every resident double what Upper Norwood Library costs. If Croydon modelled future library services upon the Upper Norwood library model then they could save up to £4m. Instead Croydon are pursuing privatisation (which could end up locking Croydon into costly and inflexible contract) without considering a best practice in-house option that could offer optimised cost and efficiency. In the interests of Croydon and Upper Norwood residents, funding for UN library should be maintained and Croydon should be made to consider all options (including an inhouse option based on the Upper Norwood model).
Lambeth council leader Steve Reed wrote on Friday 27 Jan saying "Lambeth Council supports the Upper Norwood Joint Library and we want to see it continue serving the local community into the future. We oppose the Croydon's ....attempt to close it down by withdrawing their share of the funding..."
"Lambeth commits to maintaining our share of funding for this library. We call on Croydon to withdraw their immediate closure plans, withdraw their plans to sell off the building, and sit down with us and community representatives to agree a way forward. We would like to explore the idea of setting up a community trust to own and run the Upper Norwood Joint Library with funding from both Lambeth and Croydon councils. We believe that will safeguard the library from future attempts by Croydon Council to close this library."
Please ask your journalist to obtain Sarah Bashford's confirmation that Croydon will be in fact funding Upper Norwood library in line with their commitments, by all means let the 2 council's agree a new way of working together but lets not allow semantics to get in the way of funding for a flagship library that is the UKs only independent and should be celebrated as a beacon of Big Society.”
by Krapfen
Sunday, January 29 2012, 7:20PM
“It is good to hear that CroydonCouncil isn't saying that they are closing the library - what we need is a cast iron guarantee that they will NOT sell it. They need to instruct their valuation people to stand down. In the meantime, they need to continue having 'constructive' discussions with Lambeth Council and to continue to fund the library.
This library is not for sale or for closure.”