Consult the people of Stockport on the future of our Central Library

Please sign the petition demanding a public consultation on the use of the Central Library building as both an adult education facility and a much reduced public library service.

We have campaigned, along with other organisations, for 2 years, to save Stockport's 109 years old Central Library with all of its services. We were overjoyed when a meeting of the full Council, in January 2022, voted to object to the resolution of the Cabinet to go ahead with ending the public library services at the Carnegie endowment library despite petitions totalling over 8,000 signatures; opposition to closure in the Council's own pubic consultation; and opposition from 3 of the Council's scrutiny committees. Despite the Council resolution, the Cabinet pressed ahead regardless,

However, at the Annual Meeting of the Council in May 2022, the old Cabinet was ousted. Shortly afterwards, the new Council Leader, Cllr. Hunter announced that the policy on Central Library would be reviewed.

We wrote to him calling for the review to be "an ambitious, not a defensive one", asking that consideration be given to redeveloping the Borough’s heritage Central Library, as other Councils have done, instead of moving library services to the Council owned Merseyway shopping centre, as the predecessor Cabinet had intended. We also called for the proposals emanating from the review to be put to public consultation.

Cllr. Hunter replied, outlining the new plan and rejecting the call for consultation.

He reiterated the Cabinet’s rejection of the call for public consultation in reply to a public question which we put to the full Council meeting on 6th October 2022. The question and reply can be viewed on the official webcast (see https://tinyurl.com/ytyxr2me or https://fb.watch/gc4W2ATenP/)

The plan has now been approved by the Cabinet, without public consultation. It will, if implemented, move the greater part of Central Library services, including the Local Archives and Heritage Library, to the Merseyway shopping centre. The remaining book stock at the Carnegie would comprise only "the most popular adult fiction titles"; "a selection of non-fiction that will complement the adult education services" and "a selection of junior and children’s fiction".

The reference to adult education services relates to the new plan’s proposal to move the Stockport Continuing Education service into the Carnegie building from another grade II listed heritage building, the former Hollywood Park school. This announcement tells us nothing about the intended fate of the vacated school. Floor plans submitted to the Cabinet show that only 18% of the floor area of the Carnegie building would comprise the reduced library service.

The new plan would see almost a third of opening hours at the Carnegie library being unstaffed. This system, called by the Council ‘Open+’, has been introduced already in a number of branch libraries, in order to make budgetary cuts in staffing costs. Moreover, a Manchester Evening News article, dated 7th October 2022 reports a ratcheting up of this process, “Libraries service review - £180,000 Under this proposal there would be an increase in self-service (Open Plus) hours at libraries across the borough - meaning longer periods during which facilities are unstaffed. This would see a roll-out of self-service technology as well as a review of the amount of money spent on new books”.

Finally, the ‘elephant in the room’ for the Council leadership is surely the question : ‘How will the future of the Archives Service, the Heritage Library, and the overwhelming bulk of the book stock and services of Central Library, be safeguarded by moving these facilities to a shopping centre which, having been valued at £86 million upon its acquisition in 2016, is now valued at £15.6 million and which requires £5.5 million expenditure on prevention of structural deterioration and rainwater ingress from its roof top car park?’ {Sources : Council Statements of Accounts, 2017/18, pages 64/66 and 2021/22, page 79; https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/stockport-to-sign-off-5-5m-merseyway-works/ }
.
On 6th October, we wrote to all Councillors calling for their support for public consultation (see the letter here https://tinyurl.com/vd3wemp6 ). This would be entirely consistent with the stand that the Council took in January and is appropriate in view of the far reaching nature of the new plan.

We will petition and campaign for support for this demand.

Please share the petition widely with friends and colleagues.

Stockport United Against Austerity