VIDEO:MORE than 2,500 people have signed a petition challenging any proposed closure of Lymm library.
With petition numbers climbing by the day campaigners in Lymm have exceeded the 1,500 required to force a council debate and will now present their case for keeping the Library open to a full meeting of the Council on December 5.
Local Parish Councillor Graham Gowland, who has been co-ordinating the campaign, said: “We are keen to present our arguments for keeping our fantastic local Library open. It has been run down in recent years by Livewire, but we still have a higher level of loans per resident than most parts of the country. We have plans to build on the current service. We don’t want the library run just by volunteers because we want a professional library service.
“We have investigated ways to enhance what we already have but we need Livewire and Warrington Council to deliver the service they should do.”
The campaign met its initial targets within a couple of weeks, but local campaigners are pushing to collect even more support before the hearing on December 5.
The Lymm campaign supports the wider Warrington campaign to maintain a local, quality library service throughout the Borough.
Although not the work of the official campaign team, a number of eyecatching “road” signs have sprung up in the village.
Borough councillor Ian Marks said: “These are the work of someone in the village who feels very strongly about the issue. I must stress they are not part of the ‘official’ campaign!”
The petition can be signed CLICK HERE
Meanwhile LiveWire has extended the consultation until Friday October 21 to allow more time for people to comment.
They have also stressed that no final decision has yet been made.
Emma Hutchinson, managing director of LiveWire, has said previously: “We welcome the many comments and suggestions we’ve received so far and would encourage more residents to have their say.
“We will ensure all the comments and suggestions received are used to give a full report to the council on the feedback from these proposals.”
Campaigners outside Lymm Library
13 Comments
It is great that people are putting forwards the reasons “why” libraries should be kept open, what they need to do now is to put forward a substantive, fully costed plan, in effect a business case, as to “how” they can be kept open. When folks sign a petition, are they also pledging a personal financial commitment to support their library of £10, £100, £500, £1000…….. per year. As I have said previously, in the case of Lymm, the Parish Council can increase it precept to raise money and take over the running of the library on behalf of its residents……..real devolution and localism in action. Good luck.
Interesting post Paul. Could Stockton Heath Parish Council also increase their precept and do the same? I wonder how much it currently costs a year to keep each individual library open. Is there any way of finding out?
Yes absolutely Dizzy……maybe residents need to lobby their Parish Councillors, as they are the ones who can drive this forward, and to be honest I am really surprised and disappointed that they are not actively doing that already. There is of course nothing to stop other Parish Councillor who do not have a Library, also raising their precept to give support to those Parishes who do. As an aside, I think most Parish Councils pay for a building to have their meetings in, if they owned or contributed to a Library, they could use that building instead, rather than paying out for another one LiveWire should have those figures, indeed as part of their consultation process, and in order to substantiate their case, I would have thought that they might release those costs….I wouldn’t have thought that they are commercially sensitive figures.
PS excuse typo in previous post……it should read, There is of course nothing to stop other Parish Councils who do not have a Library…………..
Can you not edit your previous post Paul?
Its ok Paul I knew what you meant 😉
PS if you are reading Gary… in answer to your question, and like I have said to you in the past when I too made typos, us mere mortals can not edit our comments on here once we have posted them. Sorry but I couldn’t reply to your question directly as yours had no ‘reply’ option 😀
Paul – Dizzy – if you register a word press blogger account you can post with piccies of yourselves and also have your own platforms to comment on issues – you also wont need to manually log in every time. Try it 🙂
To be honest Paul, and speaking from past experiences, Stockton Heath Parish Council were never one to put a fighting foot forward to lead and drive anything. Maybe they have changed though….
Interesting what you say about other Parish Councils who do not have a library perhaps being able to raise there precept too and support the others. Would they do that though and is it possible to raise a precept for a specific reason which wouldn’t directly have any benefit withing their own Parish, although saying that it would benefit their own parishioners who possibly use the libraries and services on offer.
Good idea too re Parish Councils using the libraries as a base rather than where they currently meet. Stockton Heath Parish Council meet at the Sandy Lane Centre which I believe is WBC owned (I may be wrong) but do they have to pay some sort of monthly rent to use it? I know Walton Parish Council pay a rent to hold their meetings in St Johns Community Hall but that appears to be very low looking at their last years accounts which are published on line. It appears to only be £220 for the year last year unless I am reading wrong and presumably that goes to St Johns Church and as such possibly goes towards the upkeep of the church.
Maybe another think to think about would be to introduce a yearly charge for library cards. Obviously it would have to be quite low or people would simply not pay but I’d be more than happy to pay say £10 a year for my card and use of their services. Maybe they could have a family price too.
I wonder how many active library card owners there are and how much that would raise. Way to many thoughts and questions going through my head at turned 1am in the morning now…maybe I should go and relax and read a book instead of being on here lol
Good luck to Lymm Library and it’s campaigners. Has Stockton Heath, or any of the other libraries facing closure, also got their own petitions rather than just the global one that I and many others thought was the only petition.
I believe that Stockton Heath Library has had the highest number of books borrowed over the past year so is clearly a well used library and should not be facing closure either.
Paul, WBC have a statutory duty to provide Library services. So why are you suggesting the public raise funds themselves?
Cllr Ian Marks remarks that these posters are not part of the ‘official campaign’. What part is HE playing in the ‘official campaign’? Any previous ‘campaigns’ of which he has been an organiser have merely seemed to be the gathering of signatures on pathetically uselessly worded petitions. So lets hope any members of the public involved are being careful to ensure that their protest is not being used just for silly political purposes.
It would be interesting to know what Ian Mark’s stance was at the time Library Services were being passed over to ‘Livewire’.
The Chartered Institute of Library Professionals would be better allies for the campaign group than local self-serving politicians.
The Chartered Institute of Library Professionals – warning that library closures could be against the law.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/04/librarians-warn-councils-against-closing-services-swindon-united-kingdom.
Hi SHA and Paul. I’m a Lymm Parish councillor, and if you click on the video, that’s me – I’m absolutely committed to keeping the library open, essentially to the service levels we have (Or more), partially by making the argument that Warrignton has cut too deep on libraries already – we’re 30-50% below the funding rates of other councils who have also made cuts, but also in looking at how we could utilise the building, maybe funded by the Parish, to reduce running costs for Livewire. It’s all up in the air, and you don’t line up all your negotiating points before hand publicly! As for Ian – He’s helped run several meetings we’ve had to collect information on what we call ‘alternative models’ – other approaches to keeping the library open. He’s been out on the streets collecting signatures, and we have a date – December the 5th, to make the council debate Lymm in particular. It sits alongside the other libraries – we don’t want to close others to save Lymm – although a honest review might find some that were not viable. He’s worked hard, but remember as a Borough councillor, he needs a degree of flexibility. Of the Borough councillors I know, he is a hard worker, and with Bob Barr, is certainly engaging more than some others on the council.
Hi Graham, thank you for your reply, it was very informative. You have your opinions on Clls Ian Marks & Bob Barr and I have mine – which are based on their previous activities, such as their devious, behind closed doors attempt to sell off Walton Hall and Gardens. If you are unaware of the way they dealt with this you could try looking it up in the council minutes which were revealed to the public only after the attempted deal was called in for scrutiny.
My idea of saving the library services is not to offload the costs to parish councils to reduce costs for Livewire or look for ‘alternative services’. Also I’m concerned about library services for people from ALL areas of Warrington not just or primarily for the residents of Lymm. I am also concerned about the destruction of the interior of the historic town centre library and protection of our heritage has never seemed to be high on the agenda for Cllrs Marks and Barr.
I think the more radical ‘not official campaign’ will be more effective than any run by the councillors you are working with.
This subject is further discussed on the forum pages.