Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Peter Goss, Democratic Services Manager 020 8937 1351, Email: peter.goss@brent.gov.uk
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Declarations of personal and prejudicial interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant financial or other interest in the items on this agenda. Minutes: Councillor Lorber declared a personal interest in the item on the summons by virtue of being a Director of Friends of Barham Library and a trustee of a related charitable trust. |
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Petition - Keep Preston Library open/oppose the sale or redevelopment of the site The following petition has received over 5000 signatures and, in accordance with the provisions of the Council’s petition scheme, is referred to Council for debate:
Keep Preston Road Library open We the undersigned petition the council to keep Preston Road Library open and give full consideration to alternatives to the removal of essential local library services to the Preston ward under the Brent “Library Transformation Project”. We oppose the sale or redevelopment of the site that does not include a Brent public library. Minutes: A petition comprising over 5000 signatures had been submitted to the Council in the following terms:
Keep Preston Road Library open We the undersigned petition the council to keep Preston Road Library open and give full consideration to alternatives to the removal of essential local library services to the Preston ward under the Brent “Library Transformation Project”. We oppose the sale or redevelopment of the site that does not include a Brent public library.
Under the terms of the Council’s petition scheme the petition had been referred to Full Council for debate.
The lead petitioner, Samantha Warrington, addressed the Council meeting. She stated that because the Executive had agreed to close six libraries she hoped members would have the answers to many questions that had arisen during the course of the consultation. She referred to the outcome of the consultation that showed 82% of respondents disagreed with the proposals to close libraries and stated that it had been claimed that these were not the people the Council wanted to hear from. She asked why then the children from local schools, and the congregations of local churches and places of worship all of whom had signed the petition had not been taken notice of. She asked how much the Council had paid consultants to produce the Library Transformation Project. She referred to the cost of providing a library in the new civic centre and why people had not been informed of this cost and instead told about the new civic centre being cost neutral and that the Willesden Library centre would not be demolished when it was going to be. Samantha Warrington asked if councillors believed in a comprehensive library service and that providing games in libraries would help with the development of the service. She asked if councillors believed in making the library service accessible to all, including those that could not afford a bus fare to travel to a library. She asked if it was a good use of money to provide a virtual library service for those people without computers at home. Samantha Warrington claimed that outdated figures and statistics had been used and asked why alternative savings had not been identified. She asked what would happen if the projected use of libraries contained in the transformation project did not materialise. She felt people deserved the answers to all these questions and asked that the decision to close Preston Library be reversed.
RESOLVED:
that the contents of the petition be noted and debated under item 4 below. |
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Procedural motion Minutes: Councillor Moloney moved a procedural motion concerning the conduct of the meeting.
RESOLVED:
That having heard from the petitioner, the Leader of each political group be allowed to speak for up to five minutes each, after which the Labour Group be allowed up to four speakers, the Liberal Democrat Group be allowed up to two speakers, and the Conservative Group allowed one speaker, with all contributions being subject to the normal rules for debate, after which the meeting shall move to vote on the motion. |
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Motion - Saving Brent's Libraries PDF 45 KB To consider the motion set out in the requisition submitted by Councillors Allie, Brown, Colwill, Lorber and HB Patel for an Extraordinary meeting (see attached) Minutes: Opening the debate, Councillor Lorber stated that there had been a long consultation exercise at the end of which the Executive had decided to ignore the views expressed. He added that local people had rejected the proposals which had been recycled from time gone by. Councillor Lorber stated that there were clear alternatives and that these would be scrutinised when the Executive decisions were called-in. The project would result in large parts of the borough not being served by a library. He explained that the previous administration had supported the provision of a new library in the civic centre on the basis that it would be an additional library and that was why there had been investment in libraries during this time. It was the responsibility of local councillors to speak out for their area and Councillor Lorber stated that Liberal Democrat councillors would work with the community to re-establish any library that was closed. He moved the motion circulated.
Councillor Kansagra made a point that although the consultation had run until 4 March, the decision on the libraries had effectively been taken when the budget had been agreed on 28 February. He felt that the proposals submitted by community groups had not been fully analysed to see how the libraries could stay open. He submitted that the full year saving arising from the project could be achieved by stopping the ward working programme. He felt ward working could be re-introduced when circumstances changed but closed libraries could not. Councillor Kansagra stated that the sites of Preston and Tokyngton libraries were earmarked for housing development and that this could include retaining the libraries. He referred to the Council being given extra government grant of £2.53m but instead of using this to preserve front line services it had been put into reserves. He said that reserves were for a rainy day and that it was now raining.
Councillor John stated that the administration did support the library service and that was why it had agreed that the six remaining libraries would remain open for 7 days a week and provide a more accessible and expanded service fit for the 21st century. She pointed out that this Council meeting had been called for political purposes because it did not have the power to overturn the decisions of the Executive. Accordingly it was at the meeting of the Executive where people were heard speaking in support of their local library but it was the responsibility of the Council to consider the service provided to the whole of the borough. Councillor John referred to the scale of the cuts facing the Council. Savings of £23m in efficiencies had been achieved but the Council could not achieve the required savings of £43m without making cuts to services. She added that some library buildings were not fit for purpose; in the past making difficult decisions on the library service had been avoided but faced with having to make such large savings decisive decisions needed to ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |