4:39pm Friday 13th February 2009
By Janet Wright
Protest outside St James Street library building, Coppermill Lane, 10am next Wednesday morning 18 February. Children especially welcome.
As you may have already heard, the council intends to turn St James Street Library, Coppermill Lane, into a drug users centre. It has ignored petitions signed by thousands of local residents and is refusing to restore any kind of library service to our area. The large area between Blackhorse Road and the River Lea now has no public building for use by the whole community.
The decision was made in secret at a cabinet meeting on 20 January. But news only got out weeks later when the Waltham Forest Guardian discovered the item tucked away in the back of a report. Local councillors hadn't even been informed.
The nearest existing drug users centre, Turning Point, is five minutes' walk away in the Alpha Centre. The nearest library, though, is a long slog uphill through a crowded High Street. Not surprisingly, few of the old people and parents with small children who enjoyed St James Street Library now make that journey.
Since our library was closed without warning, in April 2007, St James Street Library Campaign has won every argument about it. We have proved that the library was closed wrongly, as the council did not carry out the legally required impact assessments beforehand. We have disproved one council claim after another.
But the council is pushing ahead with a plan that we now discover was made in 2004. No wonder they didn't bother to consult us. Was this all was all decided long in advance? Meanwhile, they've come up with bogus excuses such as: * "We needed to close the library to save £70,000 a year". The decision was made at a meeting at which the councillors voted themselves a pay rise totalling £230,000 a year. A smaller payrise would have saved the library and still have taken them well over the average London basic allowance.
* "It had no disabled access". It not only did have disabled access -- it was regularly used by local residents in wheelchairs -- but it also had the only disabled toilet at this end of the High Street. There are now no similar facilities available.
* "It wasn't well used". St James Street was the borough's smallest library, but it was well used by local residents of all ages, especially old people and parents dropping in on their way back from school. This not only provided older people with one of their few chances to meet and relax without paying. It introduced children to reading outside school -- which government reports have shown is one of the most important factors in their later success in life. Many local children, living in overcrowded conditions, did their homework in the library. Council bureaucrats don't understand that a library's use can't always be measured in numbers of books borrowed.
* "We couldn't afford to refurbish it." There were no complaints from users about the comfortable, accessible and well-stocked library that we enjoyed right up till its unannounced closure. We're now told it needs a £350,000 refurbishment to reopen as a drug centre. The council has never answered any of our queries as to what needs doing. However, the £3.5 million 'refurbishment' of Walthamstow Central library left it with a badly leaking roof, noisy acoustics, no permanent book shelves, visible damage to the 100-year-old interior decor, and a new atrium thats freezing in winter and stifling in summer. Walthamstow Central library didn't need a £3.5 million makeover -- and it certainly didn't need the botch job it got. The council's idea of 'refurbishment' looks like a very expensive way of vandalising public property.
There is one frighteningly relevant aspect to the planned drug centre. Libraries help children to do well, not only at school but throughout life. Children who fall behind at school are more likely to slip into drug abuse, as are children who haven't got anything to do in their spare time. If they can’t use the building now, how many of our children will be using it in 10 years’ time?
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