Your local library?
or…
£2.2 million on Town Hall offices?
Labour councillors on Sheffield City Council have announced plans to close half of Sheffield community libraries. At the same time Labour councillors are proposing to spend £2.2 million on giving Town Hall offices a swanky makeover.
Join our campaign by following the link below to our petition:
Sign our petition today!
or…
*NEW* Fill in our libraries survey!
I call upon the Council to keep Highfield Library open. It is in the process of being re-furbished and is a much used faciity in this multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, socially diverse yet socially cohesive area.
We need our local libraries for our children aswell as adults and the community.
They provide an ideal place for older children to study. Also for children of all ages to use computers and the internet if they don’t have them at home, also for adults to do the same.
The local schools also use our local libraries aswell for educational purposes sometimes.
So we need to keep them open please.
A Library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life. Henry Ward Beecher.
Julie Dore and her cronies could do with remembering this.
Our library is highly used by locals, we shouldn’t have to give up our library; or ANY libraries, just to save money; people need them for lots of different reasons, from leisures readers to studiers. We want them, we need them, we have to keep them!
Instead of penalising the community in closing Newfield Green library and others the Council could be fighting the Government by showing how much monies are required to run efficiently the fourth largest City in the country
The library is a must for education opportunities for all ages in a nice relaxed friendly environment
The books available are excellent for all, whether to educate ones self or relaxed reading in this hectic world
Communities must suvive and go forward, what will happen to the property, will it just be left as an eyesore
While I support keeping local libraries open – ALL of them – I do think your petition and accompanying information is misleading. The proposed cut to the Libraries budget is £1.6m – 25% of the current budget – and I have not seen any Council proposal to close 17 libraries. “Some closures, or reduced hours, and exploring the potential for using volunteers/community support” is all so far.
And the Town Hall spend is down as £1m – NOT £2.2m – on roof repairs, rewiring and stonework repairs – sounds sensible housekeeping rather than swanky makeover to me.
How about a bit more responsible politics LibDems?
Hi Mike – thanks for your comment.
The Council have made clear that if communities don’t come forward to take over their local libraries, half of all the city’s libraries could close – that’s 14 in total. What’s more, the Council have refused to say which libraries are under threat of closure, so any of them could be closed next year, no matter how popular.
If you look at the Council’s budget for ongoing Town Hall repairs like roofs, electricals and masonry, you’ll see the budget is actually £1.8 million not £1 million. In addition, to this the Council are proposing to spend an EXTRA £2.2 million on Town Hall meeting rooms next year – we don’t see how Labour can justify that kind of wasteful spending.
Libraries are a basic cultural requirement in a democratic environment. They are also essential to further education at all levels and for all ages and to encourage free speech. Cuts may have to be made but closures are not acceptable.
Libraries (including mobile libraries), like other public services, are an essential part of the fabric of our society, whatever age we are or whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Over the centuries libraries have built up a reputation as a good free source of information, education, individual entertainment and self betterment – paid for by the taxes each of us pays both locally and nationally. And they are staffed by properly trained librarians and library assistants who have made a conscious choice to serve their communities in this way. In many cases, they have put in a good number of years’ service, have provided continuity and have built up a good local knowledge of the communities they serve. This is all now under severe threat due to budget cuts.
We deplore the plans the Council has announced to spend £2.2m on refurbishing the Town Hall offices, and at the same time threatening to cut back the library service. Admittedly, both the interior and the exterior of the Town Hall buildings need to be maintained in reasonable repair, but equally, the libraries and other public services need to be reasonably maintained and funded – and not fragmented and run on the cheap.
The culprits for all these cutbacks are successive governments in London who have, year on year, cut back severely the amount of money they provide local authorities to run their services. Why ? Because these governments have consistently turned a blind eye to the tax evasion/dodging activities of some large, often multi-national businesses, public utilities, banks and wealthy individuals. We need to ask the question why the present Government is still allowing them to pay themselves exorbitant salaries and huge bonuses which they do not merit. All their ill-gotten gains could easily pay for all the services, including libraries, that have suffered damaging cuts in the past few years.
Public services run by fully trained and dedicated public servants are an essential ingredient of a healthy society, and breaking them up and contracting them out to untrained amateurs and well-meaning volunteers will only hasten their demise and slow down the recovery in the economy which we all hope for. Business and commerce can only thrive if there is a properly funded professionally trained public service to underpin it and to provide the glue needed for a joined-up society.
Present trends need to be reversed and public servants recognised as of equal worth to entrepreneurs in our society. We all can’t be Sir Alan Sugars or Sir Richard Bransons, and Government badly mis-reads human nature if it thinks we are all the same. Treating librarians and other public servants as if they are a drain on society is highly damaging to community cohesion and is leading towards a divided society where the strongest always prevail and the weakest go to the wall. Public servants, like the unemployed, the sick and disabled and people struggling on low incomes are all being treated as 2nd class citizens in an increasingly ‘dog eats dog’ society. A recipe for disaster or disorder – or both.
The words of the song ‘Lean on Me’ sum up exactly why we need strong, professionally run public services – including libraries:
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there’s always tomorrow
Lean on me when you’re not strong
And I’ll be your friend
I’ll help you carry on
For it won’t be long
‘Til I’m gonna need
Somebody to lean on
Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no-one can fill those of your needs
That you won’t let show
You just call on me brother when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you’d understand
We all need somebody to lean on
If there is a load you have to bear
That you can’t carry
I’m right up the road
I’ll share your load
If you just call me
Notwithstanding the fact that many people with P.C.’s browse the internet for reference, education, self advancement and pleasure, there are many who don’t enjoy owning ‘desktops and laptops’ The young, the elderly, ethnic minorities and students readily spring to mind when considering who benefits from our libraries
KEEP THE THEM OPEN.
CREATE NEW COMFORT ZONES FOR COUNCILLORS AND COUNCIL STAFF – NO !!!
WE ALL REMEMBER THE THE ‘NEW TOWN HALL’; CONSTRUCTED AND DEMOLISHED WITHIN A GENERATION.
WE ALSO REMEMBER THE SELF PROMOTON OF CERTAIN LABOUR COUNCILLORS RESULTING IN THE COSTLY LEGACY, (DEBT). OF THE WORLD STUDENT GAMES – THE FATE OF THE DON VALLEY ARENA IS THAT IT IS TO BE CLOSED !
THE LIBRARIES ARE A BENEFIT TO THE COUNCIL TAX PAYING COMMUNITY AND MUST BE RETAINED
Maybe some of our ‘Councillors’ themselves might benefit from using our libraries.By referring to matters of good manners and etiquette Cllr Dore might learn there is no shame nor stigma in replying to letters she receives from members of the Council Tax paying community.
Keep Ecclesfield Linary open. There will be this disused building collections dust with no purpose in our village. I’d hate it. These offices will be so silly, millions on new filing cabinets!!…Come on Lib Dems. Lets keep Ecclesfield Libary open!
I believe that libraries are a resource worth investing in and have happily signed the petition. However, the sensational way in which this has been advertised was not necessary. Being employed in the construction industry, I know that the council has a duty of care to maintain the town hall, which is a listed building. I’m also guessing that the funding for the repairs is availabe only as a grant for that specific purpose and would not be transferrable to library funding.
Hi James – thanks for your comment.
No-one objects to essential repairs on buildings; however, even after the current works are finished another £2.2 million will spent on swanky makeovers for meeting rooms inside the Town Hall. This money could have been invested in local libraries – helping to reduce running costs.
Keep them open!
In hard times we need out community libraries more than ever. Please keep them open.
As a child in the late 30s and 40s and beyond, I looked forward to going to the library and choosing books to read, I think it is
essential that they keep them open.
The library service is an essential educational tool for all ages and the branches provide an invaluable service to the entire community.Please think very carefully before any closures are considered
It is very demoralising and depressing to close libraries – particularly in times when boarding up is reminding us of increasing pressures. It encourages feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. It is another door closing, a local source lost, even a loss of warmth and also loss of being part of the world that many people need to fight increasing isolation. These things lead to increasing costs of ill health and that needs to be taken into consideration too.
At a time when many of us are financially crippled. Unable to continue working as you cut funding to our neighbourhood nursery’s forcing them to close. You take away a resource key in the education & socialisation of our children. How short sighted is it to remove a community resource, a key instrument in the development of our future generation of workers & tax payers?!
I frequent several library’s on a regular basis with my 3 children. They offer a safe, welcoming & stimulating environment for the entire spectrum (age/culture & class) of our comunity. Where else offers that?
Not to mention a warm dry place when the economic crisis is such that we can’t afford to visit playcentres or to put on our own central heating!
We don’t need a swanky town hall. We DO need a cohesive community.
Local libraries provide so much beyond books! They are part of our community and provide access to social networking (old-fashioned style) and just as importantly computer networking for those who are unable to access the internet at home. They are an educational resource open to all and should be viewed as such. Times are hard and tough decisions do have to be made but surely there are other ways of cutting the budget.
Hi,
The first, much loved and used by everybody, library at Ecclesall, was closed down. Then demolished and the land sold for private development by the Labour Council.
To gain local and public approval for the development of the land for private housing, the site developers promised to build the community, a brand new purpose built library facility.
To now suggest closing Ecclesall library once again, as the building development is now completed, shows a callous, vindictive and disingenuous approach by the Labour Council. Not withstanding, that the new facility is popular and very much used by adults, parents, children and school children from the local ‘comprehensives.’
With regards
John Dawson (Local resident and library user)
My family including my grand children are frequent users of Sheffield libraries and Chapeltown in particular. This excellent service at Chapeltown is well used and would be very much missed.
However I feel that this labour council will lean much more towards keeping libraries in those areas which vote labour.
Best wishes
Ken
If they are to be closed why is another complete refurbishment of highfield library currently underway?
Highfield library is so close to the city centre and central library, it would have made more sense to close that one and refurb a library further from the centre. Greenhill library has never had a refurb and I can remember higfield been refurbished not long ago and now its having another.
This makes no sense to me.
I am a 77 year old lady and really enjoy my walk to Greenhill Library where I can get my three books or more.My one big pleasure in life has always been able to read books it would make my life rather empty if this was taken away from me.Yes I could go to the main library but
its more convenient to go to Greenhill Library.There are always lots of people there using the facilities available to us.