Happy ending...how we saved our library
Is the writing on the wall for our libraries? As the Daily Express continues its national campaign, NEIL CLARK recalls the victorious battle to save his local library
IF you think you’re beaten, you usually are. That’s what I kept saying to myself during the first months of 2011 as I and other members of the Save Botley Library campaign group battled against what appeared to be overwhelming odds to keep our much-loved local library open.
This particular library was one of 20 threatened by cuts made by Oxfordshire County Council.
In November 2010 the authority had announced that funding for 20 of the county’s 43 libraries would cease altogether, meaning they would either have to be closed, privatised or run by volunteers.
The prospect of an absolutely priceless asset, the main non-denominational hub of our community for more than 40 years, being lost in just a few months’ time caused huge alarm.
A special public meeting was held in our local church early in the New Year, at which there was standing room only. It was there and then that our campaign was launched to loud cheers.
We were told by some, including the leader of the council, that we were wasting our time. Oxfordshire simply did not have the money to maintain its existing library service. The cuts were inevitable.
But nothing is inevitable until it happens and our campaign proved that having the right strategy and attitude can make a difference.
Because of my journalistic background I was appointed our group’s media communications officer. I was determined to get our campaign as much publicity as possible, in order to exert maximum pressure on local politicians.
Our first event involved petition -signing and letter-writing in our local shopping precinct. It was featured on BBC One’s South Today news bulletin, as well as being the lead story on BBC Radio Oxford.
The response from the public was positive, but the leader of the county council was dismissive.
Petitions would not be effective because there was not enough cash to keep the library open. We were determined to ignore the advice.
OUR next event, in early February, was a Read-In at the library. Local children’s authors Philip Pullman and Julia Golding read from their work (Julia read a specially written poem Love Song For My Local Library). It was a huge success, attracting local and national media coverage.
Then, as if by magic, the line of the council began to change.
First, it was reported that a oneoff pot of £450,000 had been created to help fund services that residents wanted to preserve. Later that week another £300,000 was found.
But we were not yet out of the woods. On St Valentine’s Day, in front of the TV cameras, we handed cards over to County Hall that schoolchildren had drawn to show their love for the library. We also delivered our petition book which now had almost 4,000 signatures.
The following day our chairman Mike Sage delivered a powerful speech to the council, ahead of an important vote on the budget.
“I have come here – on behalf of the users of Botley Library and all users across the county – to ask that you represent your constituents and rethink your plans for Oxfordshire’s libraries in order to find ways of keeping them all open,” he declared.
The council voted to pass its budget, but there was to be a public consultation period before any closures took place.
We knew we had to intensify our campaign. Two factors we had in our favour were that our parliamentary constituency (Oxford West and Abingdon) was one of the most marginal in the country and local elections were coming up in spring.
Four members of our campaign group, myself included, decided to stand for election to the parish council. I also stood as an independent for the district council.
We were determined to make the future of our library the number one election issue.
In addition to council cuts, our library was also threatened by a proposed redevelopment of the shopping area. Given the overwhelming public support for our cause all candidates felt obliged to voice their support for it.
I topped the poll in the parish council vote, the first time I had stood for election. It was all to do with me being one of the public faces of our campaign.
Another meeting was held advising people how to complete council consultation forms. We also organised a fancy dress Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in the shopping precinct, asking people to come dressed as their favourite literary characters.
After the consultation period ended we had a nervous wait to see what the council’s final decision would be.
Then, in December, came the wonderful news the entire community had hoped for. Botley Library was saved and would remain fully staffed as part of a comprehensive library service. It was a remarkable turnaround from where we had been the previous December. We had done it. Today, I look back at the Save Botley Library campaign with great pride. Every time I go to the library, usually a couple of times a week, and see children poring excitedly over the picture books, or hear elderly people having a chat about the mysteries they have just been reading with the friendly librarians, it reminds me what we would have lost had it closed.
BUT while our campaign was successful, others across the country have not had the same result. More than 700 libraries have been lost since 2010, with new figures revealing that £300million has been wiped from budgets since the start of the decade. There are now just 3,600 libraries in the UK, compared to 4,567 only 12 years ago.
The situation is extremely worrying but we should not be demoralised. The brilliant and very timely Daily Express Save our Libraries Crusade is helping to push the issue towards the top of the political agenda. Make no mistake, the importance of maintaining a nationwide, comprehensive, well-funded network of public libraries cannot be understated.
Not only are libraries a great civilising influence, they are just about the only place in town centres you can visit nowadays that do not involve having to spend money.
As Laura Swaffield, chairwoman of The Library Campaign, has said: “People of every age and background go to the library, share the space, interact with each other.
“In many areas, it’s the only place left that qualifies as this kind of public space.”
Imagine a Britain without libraries. Would you want to live in such a place? To avoid that dystopia becoming a reality in a few years we all need to get behind the Daily Express crusade and let our elected representatives know, through letters, petitions, emails and telephone calls, that cuts to library services are unacceptable.
If we all make enough noise, like we did in Botley eight years ago, we can reverse the tide.
Remember, the last chapter in this story has to yet to be written. It is up to us to make sure it has a happy ending.