Leisure chief Councillor Tulip Siddiq

Published: 20 June, 2013
by DAN CARRIER

LIBRARY users say they have been betrayed by the Town Hall’s closure of the Regent’s Park branch.

Regulars at the library in Robert Street, along with teachers and community campaigners, voiced their anger at the shutdown during a meeting at the Dick Collins Hall on Monday night.

Much of their criticism was directed at leisure chief Councillor Tulip Siddiq, who lists saving libraries during budget cuts among her achievements. She is one of the local ward councillors.

The Regent’s Park building was shut at the end of March, with some services transferred elsewhere, under Town Hall plans to save 25 per cent from a library budget of £8million. Three other libraries had to run themselves or face closure.

Meeting organiser Danny Gallivan said closure was a betrayal of those who needed the library most. “This area has the highest levels of poverty in the country,” he added. “This is a place that really needs its library.”

He claimed that figures used by Cllr Siddiq to show that the library was underused were skewed.

“This was an educational resource that is badly needed here,” Mr Gallivan said. “It needed investment, not closure. We were told that book borrowing figures were poor – but that was because of years of under-investment.

“No wonder people did not want to use this library – it had been slowly run down. They said it was only used for homework and computers. But they simply did not look after it.”

He added: “Councillors in other wards campaigned really hard to save their libraries. Ours didn’t. Savings of around £119,000 to shut our library are a pittance compared to the £83million that needed to be found.”

He added that people in the area felt “seriously let down and disappointed” by Cllr Siddiq.

The library is being renovated to house a Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

Camden CAB says it will offer a full range of much-needed services and that the building’s position in one of the poorest wards in the country was perfect.

It is to provide access to computers as well as drop-in services, legal advice and help from highly-trained volunteers.

Cllr Siddiq defended the library closure decision, saying it was based on research which showed the facilities that were most popular at the library. They would be safeguarded in face of swingeing government cuts to Town Hall budgets.  

She said a homework club was being run at the nearby West Euston Time Bank.

The CAB, due to open next week, would provide the popular computer services that used to be run in the library.

She said: “The homework club is up and running and we are refitting the former library. It will be open next week under the management of the CAB.”