Councillor Murphy Meeting

Why Libraries? Because ...
"Even the most misfitting child
Who’s chanced upon library’s worth
Sits with the genius of the Earth
And turns the key to the whole world"
- Ted Hughes

Today's meeting with councillor Murphy, excellently chaired by our very own Colleen went very well. The turnout was excellent and the presentations given by everyone before handing over their consultation elements were outstanding. It was fair to say that Councillor Sue Murphy, deputy leader of Manchester city council, with Neil MacInnes, head of libraries, got some very strong messages from the local residents about the feelings of Burnage residents, the impact the closure of the library would have on them, the sense of neglect that they feel the council has towards them amongst many many other views.

There was some concerns at the beginning that we wouldn't have enough chairs, but we managed to squeeze everyone in. The children who stood up during the presentation to say their piece did an amazing job! I for one, want to thank them so much for their hard work on the day. It really did so much for everyone there. We couldn't have done it without you! :-)

The above quote is particularly poignant, since this was read out to close the meeting. It was such a good quote that I thought it was worth sharing across the board.

Thank you so much to all the Burnage residents who attended today and to cllr Sue Murphy and Neil MacInnes and of course, to everyone for their time on a weekend.

You're all stars!

***UPDATE 06/04/2013*** By popular demand, I've been asked to send my poem to the local media. So I've designed a poster around it in case anyone can make use of it.

However, because you've been such a loyal bunch, especially in showing your support, I'm revealing the poster here first.

There is a link to a better quality one available for printing. It has been designed for A2 sized paper, but an A4 one is available here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6EdDtBc5vwCS3RKZUJ5LWtneEk/edit?pli=1



EA

The Borrowers!

"It's necessary to start most work alone. But I'm tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it's borrowing poetry or travelling with an associate."
- Jenny Holzer 

The Big Burnage Borrow Begins!

The uptake was excellent. We received a very short notice message at 1:30pm that the MEN would be in attendance at Burnage Library at 2:30pm. Out campaign list emails and text messages to mobile and land-lines had been working flawlessly for the duration of the campaign so far. It was critical it didn't fail now! 

The message was written to all supporters and broadcast around. The emails sent without problem. The broadcast text was the next job.

The messages was written straight into text. The send button was pressed and all we could do was wait.

10 minutes past and the hourglass on the phone was still sending them. Then the time appeared next to the message and we knew it had gone. We breathed a sigh of relief.

At 2:30pm I made it to the library. Outside our faithful and hardy supporters stood with our trusty banner as others went inside to borrow books. Initially, I picked up my allocation in small books but then had a second thought as I am quite a portly chap and could carry heavier books. Plus, I didn't want it to seem like I was borrowing Mr Men books and leaving some others to carry much heavier publications... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

fig 1 - The first shelf is empty

The queue started to grow. The MEN photographer was here at 2:30pm on the dot as promised. He took pictures of all the borrowing and the queue, which by this time was quite substantial. John Leech MP and councillor Bill Fisher were in attendance and spoke to me about a report I had written. Several pictures were taken of all of the contingent and at one point it was difficult to manoeuvre around the library for the bodies :-) Needless to say, we were delighted with the turnout and at such short notice too!

The MEN photographer took pictures of us, the children, balloons that people brought, our placards, the queue, the library staff etc. etc. (between you and me, we may have a new face of the campaign :-)

fig 2 - More empty shelves :-)

The borrow continues until 12pm on the 6th April. At 2pm tomorrow in Burnage Library is the meeting with MCC Deputy Leader Sue Murphy, who heads up the consultation. We want to show our support so if you can, come and borrow some books between now and 12pm tomorrow and if you can spare the time, stay for our campaign meeting 2pm - 4pm, 6th April in Burnage Library! 

A Big THANK YOU to everyone for the support they will give this weekend. We have two weeks to make our voices heard!

EA

Popping Up Everywhere!

"When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself." - Isaac Asimov

This afternoon, the Save Burnage Library campaign joined forces with other library campaigns to attend the popup library at Albert Sq. However, due to a last minute change of plans, the popup library had to be moved to Piccadilly Gardens due to the use of Albert Square by the armed forces exhibition.

Luckily, Northenden campaigners informed us, having seen our team holding aloft our banner at the town hall, and we made our way to the new venue. Our march showed off our placards, "Save Burnage  Library" signs to the general public and me with QR Code stickers on my jacket as we made our way there.

It was a sunny day, if not particularly warm. We tacked our signs to the side of the well constructed popup library. An excellent piece of joinery by the Levenshulme team, I must say. Certainly a lot better than I could have done, as evidenced by me hammering my own thumb in true slapstick style. I shall very publicly exhibit my bruise all week to proudly proclaim that "I was there" :-) We also clamped our banner aloft on one side, which publicised our campaigns' "Big Burnage Borrow" event on the 5th and 6th April and the team had many photos snapped by various photographers, campaigners and members of the public.

Some of our very own Save Burnage Library Campaign team
show what we're made ofs

Outside the popup library, stories were being read to children. They sat, cross-legged on the floor, listening intently. Of course, some adults, who obviously couldn't resist a good story joined the younger children in awe and wonder. Inside the popup library there were shelves and stalls with books for users of the popup library to pick up. A number of us brought books which we added to the collection and read a few whilst we were there.

Piccadilly Gardens was occupied by a number of protest groups, not just the library campaigners. It was very busy this afternoon, but this was excellent for us, as it gave use the opportunity to canvas for signatures and the filming of the socialist rally got the popup library in shot. I even heard a sound engineer with a boom mic speak to a group in front of us and said he was from channel 4! :-O

A selection of the many pinned campaign plaques, placards and signs

We got ourselves into many shots during the afternoon and certainly got a lot of interest. A lady who used to frequent Burnage library and is now living in Oxfordshire happened to be in Manchester city centre today and signed our petition. She says she'll be watching to see how we get on. If you're reading this, thank you so much for your support! :-)

I leave you with a quote found on the side of the popup library, which pretty much sums up the longer term impact of library closure.

Need I say more.

EA (for the Save Burnage Library Campaign)

What, When, Where...

"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all."–Abraham Lincoln

Campaign Updates!

We have had a number of results from activities this week:

Door-to-Door Campaign

Seven of our hardy Save Burnage Library campaigners volunteers to brave walking in the freezing cold on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March to canvas for campaign support in Burnage door-to-door. To reward the efforts of these tough team, we've had 240 respondents agree to write letters to the council.

Thank you so much to those that volunteered part of their weekend to help with the campaign and deliver leaflets to residents of Burnage.

Kingsway Federation Support

After an email was sent to the heads of the local primary and secondary schools asking for any support they could give, the Kingsway Federation, the governing body running both Green End and Ladybarn primary school's responded with a fantastic letter signed by the chair in support of our campaign, objecting to the closure of Burnage Library.

The chair highlights the desire of parents in the area for their children to do well and gain literacy skills. The letter also highlight the importance of access to library internet resources which would close under these proposals.

The Save Burnage Library campaign team thanks the Kingsway Federation for their wholehearted support.

Details on the Calendar

You'll notice the calendar on the right hand side of the screen. This Google calendar has been added to keep you up-to-date with campaign activities. The following link will open the Save Burnage Library Campaign Calendar.

Upcoming Events

We still have a number of events coming up which all supporters are encouraged to attend:

Albert Square Popup Library (30th March 2013)

Working with the save Levenshulme baths and other library campaigns, Burnage residents are invited to participate in the popup library event taking place outside the town hall on Saturday 30th March 2013. Full details can be found here.

Big Burnage Borrow! (5th & 6th April 2013)

From the afternoon of Friday 5th April 2013 until 1pm on Saturday 6th April 2013, we are taking part in the Big Burnage Borrow. We will be taking out our full allocation of books and keeping them until after the meeting with Sue Murphy on the Saturday (details below). There will likely be a media presence, at the meeting with councillor Murphy and this is a great opportunity for exposure. We would encourage anyone willing to help to come along on either the Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and take out their full allocation of books.

Meeting with Councillor Sue Murphy (6th April 2013)

Burnage Library Campaigners have managed to secure time on Saturday April the 6th in Burnage Library with Councillor Sue Murphy, the deputy leader of Manchester City Council. We will be chairing and presenting our case. There will be an opportunity to ask questions and follow up on some of the actions from the original meeting with the councillors back in February

Presenting Children's Letter to Sir Richard Lees (17th April 2013)

On the last day of the consultation, children and adults from the local area will be presenting Sir Richard Lees with letters objecting to the closure of Burnage library. Details to follow.

The consultation ends on the 17th April, with a decision being made by mid May. We want Burnage Library to remain open and will push until the 17th to support it doing so. Thank you for all the support so far. Keep up the essential support for this campaign!

Save Burnage Library Campaign

Pop-up Library Event

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” 
― John Green

It's official! The Save Burnage Library Campaign will be joining other libraries from around the city at the pop-up public library in Albert Sq, Saturday 30th March 2013 between 1pm and 3pm. 

The event will feature book swapping. So if you have books that you have finished reading and not need any more, bring them along and swap your book with someone who may have something you might fancy perusing :-)

If you have any capacity to help, please arrive earlier and bring with you:

• cardboard, paper, fabric - anything that can be decorated and pegged to the 'building'. 
• Markers, paint, crayons, etc.
• Banners, signs, the usual petitions.
• Of course not forgetting: Books!

Please support our campaign and inform your neighbours and the local community by clicking on the poster below and printing the picture in full.

Once you have printed it, please give these out to neighbours; stick them to the inside window of your house; print smaller versions to stick to the inside of your car; put them on community noticeboards; hand them out to shops and anything else you think would benefit from it. 

Thank you all for your continuing support of the campaign!

Save Burnage Library Campaign Team

Closing how many? I've to go how far?

"Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand. "- Ezra Pound 

A very quick blog this time.

I've done a quick and dirty analysis of the transport implications for the closure of Burnage library on local residents. I have written up and presented my findings in the following document:

Impact Summary- Transport.pdf

The key here is to note that in the cases shown, Burnage residents will not only be affected by closing Burnage Library, but then be further affected by the loss of 3 of the libraries closest to Burnage as part of the same proposal. That leaves only two libraries affecting areas furthest from Burnage residents.

Additionally, having combined the data with public transport travel times, I have included the extra journey times and distances that people will travel and also the amount of walking they could typically do (based upon the speed of a young or middle aged adult of below pensionable age). I have highlighted this and it is important to note, that for the majority of library users, this is an absolute best case scenario and even that is grim!!

The impact analysis that the council are due to deliver with the consultation will at least have to look at the data in this way, but for all the libraries under threat. Our library serves a community who have little other practical options. As Tom stated in his first blog, "A Polite Request", many people will find they won't bother to use the libraries further away and some simply won't be able to!

Take heed MCC. 

EA

The Battle Rages On...

“You don't have to burn books to
destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” ― Ray Bradbury

As many a commentator has said at various points through this enduring financial crisis the world finds itself in, "we find ourselves at the edge of a precipice".

I was saddened to find out that on Friday 8th March 2013, despite campaigner efforts, Manchester City Council, led by Sir Richard Leese, backed the £80million worth of cuts which would likely see several library and leisure services in Manchester closed permanently. The libraries on death row include our very own Burnage library.

The budgetary approval capped off a difficult week for our courageous team. Due to a technical glitch, an amendment submitted in time to the council by local councillor Bev Craig, was not received by the deadline of 4pm on the day of submission. This unfortunately meant that the amendment, which formed part of a wider proposal, was not available in time for the general council meeting.  We have been assured that it will be considered and there is technical proof that it had been sent before the deadline, so should be considered as a matter of process.

Additionally, the amendments submitted for Fallowfield upon which our amendment was based, included the wording:

"Council welcomes the transformation of our Library Service, with new co-located neighbourhood libraries and the significant investment programme in Central Library."

Which was certainly not what we support. Burnage Library should stay open as it is now. So there was some confusion regarding that line. We want the library to stay open as it is!!

The Manchester Evening News report on the council meeting indicated the political dynamics, but also the strength of feeling that the contingents of various campaigns exhibited. Members of our core team attended the general council meeting and sat quietly and obediently through, watching the process unfold.

In the end, the labour majority approved the budget :-(

The council budgetary process seems top down, the same as central to local government allocation. They set the budget, including each top level departmental budget line and then decide how to allocate it. We don't want any libraries to close but the side-effect of this budgetary decision may be internal 'dogfighting' to get the scraps of funding to keep each ward's local provisions open. This could degenerate the coordinated campaigns, which would suit the council perfectly, because we would be so busy fighting for the scraps, they would just pass closure decisions without too much issue. Let's not let that happen! We are stronger united!

Can we get a reprieve? Well, from the council's own consultation document, we know previous reprieves on prior library and leisure budgets have had detrimental effects on library usage, because they couldn't change the money they had been allocated. So they saved by cutting opening hours and closed libraries during lunchtimes. This one hour closure, reduced library lending by 11%, with 11% less active users, 16.8% reduction in PC usage and visits had fallen by 21%.

21%!!!... for a one hour closure!? What worries me about this particular number, never mind all the others,  is that 1 hour closure in an 8 hour day is 12.5%. So if they had modelled it as a steady footfall all day, it means that they got their sums badly wrong! It obvious from this that lunchtime has a higher footfall than average and that this one hour closure happened at a peak usage time. In my mind, this was a very bad decision to get value for money, because the fixed costs meant the money they were putting in per person, was actually going to waste! They were not applying it at the right time. So this doesn't fill me with confidence that the council know what they are doing when it comes to decisions like that and so I'm worried about the key decision to cut our library service budgets!!

So, what can we do? Where now?

Remember, the top down nature of budget setting means they don't know how to spend the money yet. This means we have still got time for our parallel strands to action change.

Well, it's not all bad news. We have been buoyed by the news that our campaign letters and e-mails, written by a substantial number of our supporters and all of our core team have had by far the biggest impact on the council. They were impressed apparently with our tenacity. So thank you to everyone who has done that so far. This is our most effective line and this is route should definitely continue. 

We have been informed that e-mails are submitted in addition to letters as part of the consultation. This means that we should write, fax and e-mail our disapproval. Tweet to your friends about the potential closure of Burnage Library. Tweet and send e-mail to local celebrities such as Max Beesley, Noel and Liam Gallagher and Wes Brown and ask them to help our campaign. Include the hashtag #saveburnagelibrary in your tweets. Maybe also include reading quotes like the one at the top of this post.

Also, Burnage Library doesn't cost a huge amount to run relative to many other libraries in the city and as was reiterated in tonight's meeting, they won't get much back from us in terms of financial savings. However, the costs to the community now and in the future will be huge. These costs will shift on to other departments in time. This can be in the form of increased health and social care costs or costs to address indirect effects of facilities closure, including education and antisocial behaviour, amongst a whole host of issues that the council freely admits to being an unknown quantity. The council may have the budget for those other effects now, but without knowing the effect library closures will have on an already stretched community, it is extremely likely that they have wholly overestimated the overall savings the council will make or the quality of service they can deliver.

Let's not forget, there hasn't been an assessment of demographic fairness yet. This is another angle that we will pursue. Burnage Library users seem to fall into a couple of very key age groups, both will be affected disproportionately and hence unfairly, by the closure. Both groups with enduring negative effect. The equality act has to be considered as part of any council consultation on service closure. This is a very important line that we should pursue. 

On the 30th March, there is a Levenshulme library protest being held in Albert Square outside the council offices. Burnage will be there in support with banners and placards. Come and support us, with all the affected libraries at Albert square on the 30th March.

The council are prodding us further over the edge of the gaping precipice we Burnage residents find ourselves staring over. As someone who's directly benefited from the library over the years, I for one am turning around and saying "No more!".

Who's with me?

EA