Save Botley Library Runs Events before OCC Consultation Concludes

The Oxfordshire County Council has been running a Public Consultation on its’ proposal for the “Future Library Service for Oxfordshire” since the beginning of June which will conclude on the 30th September. The basis of the proposal is to keep all libraries open, with a good stock of books, public access computers and online resources. The consultation document (available on-line or from the Library) includes a Feedback Form to allow all residents to express their views. At the end of the Consultation results will be reported to the Council Cabinet in early November for a decision as to whether or not to take the proposal forward. If it is agreed, implementation will start from April 2012 as no changes to the library service will need to be made to meet the 2011/12 Council budget.

Although thanks to our campaigning it is proposed that Botley Library will remain open and fully funded, this does not mean that our task to Save Botley Library is completed. Before the Library Service Consultation concludes at the end of September we need to complete as many Feedback Forms for this as possible, in order to ensure that the Council fully understand how strongly we feel about our library.

In support of this, the Save Botley Library campaign has been running a number of events to encourage the completion of Feedback Forms. The first of these was a Mad Hatters’ Tea Party in the Precinct on Saturday 10th September. Members of the Steering Group and a number of our supporters dressed up as book characters, as shown in the photo, and we provided tea, cakes and a table for people to sit down and complete the Feedback Forms. This event was well supported and we had over 40 forms completed on the spot and a similar number taken away to be completed.

The second event was held in the Library the following Saturday – a Graphic Novel/Comic Strip Workshop run by Adam Murphy. A great deal of fun was had by all who came, ages ranging from 6 to 60, and one or two talented young cartoonists emerged who were glad to learn about Adam's cartoon course at the Old Jam Factory. Look out for a display of the cartoons done on the day in the Library. As well as a morning of fun a further fifty feedback forms were completed.

The final event will be held on Saturday 24th September a Horrid Henry Treasure Hunt, in the Library, which we are also expecting to be well-attended.

Thanks to all of your support we have taken a huge step in removing Botley from the November list of potential Library closures and we now need to make our opinions clear before the end of the Public Consultation. If you haven’t already completed the Feedback Form in the consultation document, and do not do so, then it will be assumed that you have no opinion should the Council change their position on our library. We know we can rely on you to help us reach our destination of a Botley Library fully funded and run by trained staff and librarians.

Save Botley Library Campaign.

Come to the Save Botley Library Mad Hatter's Tea Party!

Save Botley Library is holding a Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Botley Square on Saturday 10th September at 11am. Dress up as a character from a book and come and celebrate the campaign's success so far! The event has a serious purpose too- to remind people to fill in and send off their Consultation forms to Oxfordshire County Council. (please read the information about the forms here). There will be forms to fill in for those who haven't already done so. Remember, the deadline for sending in the forms is 30th September!

As Save Botley Chairman Mike Sage said in his speech to our Save Botley Public meeting in June, we've come a long way in our battle to keep Botley Library open as a council-run library staffed by trained librarians, but we're not over the finishing line yet. Help us get over the line with one more big push! See you all on the 10th September!

Mike Sage's speech at the Save Botley Library Public Meeting

Save Botley Library Public Meeting
Seacourt Hall - Thursday 23rd June 2011

Welcome!

Thank you for coming here tonight and for all of your support in the campaign to Save Botley Library.

I am Mike Sage, Chair of the Steering Group that is running your campaign. I am joined by some of the members of the Steering Group, including Neil Clark and Andrew Pritchard Chair & vice Chair of the Parish Council, Lorraine Bonner-Woods, Emily Burgoyne, Jennie Hopkins and Anissa Schlichting.

We would like to give you an update on where we are on the journey to keep Botley Library open, run by trained staff and librarians.


Where have we come from?

In November 2010 Oxfordshire County Council announced that it was planning to remove funding from 20 of the 43 Oxfordshire Libraries on the basis that the remaining 23 account for 82% of Library visits. Botley was in the group of 20 for which funding would cease although it accounted third largest number of visits in the County.

Since that time the residents of Botley have been campaigning to Save Botley Library. The support for this Campaign has been fantastic, showing the strength of Public Support for the retention of the Library in their community.

Our Petition, Library events and protests have, we are sure, focussed the attention of the County Council on its’ decision for the future of Libraries. More often than not, when the subject of Library closures has been in the media (press, radio or TV) Botley Library and our campaign to save it have been featured. We have to thank Neil Clark our Media Communications Officer for that.


Where are we now?

On 27th May Oxfordshire County Council announced a proposal for the “future Library service for Oxfordshire”. This followed a more thorough look at the requirements for libraries across the County and will form the basis of a Public Consultation through to 30th September. An increase in the provision of funding from central government means that no changes to the library service will need to be made to meet the 2011/12Council budget.

The basis of the proposal is to keep all libraries open, with a good stock of books, public access computers and online resources. However, not all libraries will be fully funded and nearly half of them will need some form of volunteer support to operate.

The proposal categorises Oxfordshire Libraries into five key groups:
- Groups 1 & 2 comprise the 22 core libraries which will be fully funded and resourced. I am pleased to confirm that Botley is in this grouping which accounts for around 85% of all issues, visits and library users.
- Group 3 are community plus libraries and will be run by two thirds paid staff and one third volunteers, although they only account for around 5% of usage.
- Groups 4 & 5 are the balance of the Counties libraries and will be run by one third paid staff and two thirds volunteers, accounting for around 10% of usage.
Whilst in the current proposal Botley library will be fully funded and run by trained staff and librarians, the campaign remains opposed to the use of volunteers to provide core services in any library. We will therefore continue to support the Save Oxfordshire Libraries alliance in their efforts to question the use of volunteers in Groups 3, 4 & 5.
The proposal also previews the Councils aspirations to enhance the library service to ensure that it is fit for the 21st century. These include investigating: the provision of free Wi-Fi across the library network; improving the library website for online access; delivering eAudio and eBooks via the website.

The Library Service Consultation Document includes a Feedback Form to allow all residents to have their say.

Where are we going?

We now need to complete as many Feedback Forms for Library Service Consultation as possible, in order to make the Council fully aware of how we feel about our library.
This can be done online at the County Council Library Services web page or by filling in the forms available from the Library and here tonight.

Your Steering Group has produced some guidance notes with some suggestions for handling some of the trickier questions on the form. These are available here tonight and are on our website savebotleylibrary.blogspot.com.


Over the coming weeks we will be running a number of events to promote the completion of the Feedback Forms. This will include events in this hall, in the Library and during the North Hinksey Festival we hope to have some form of small celebration in the precinct to mark our success to date.

The County Council is also offering a library service consultation event to all libraries. It is up to us to define what form this will take and so if any of you have any views on this we are keen to hear them. We will also consult with the Save Oxfordshire Libraries alliance to hear what is other planned by other libraries.

Watch our website and the Notice boards around the Parish for information on all of the events and if you haven’t already done so leave us your e-mail address and we will add you to our supporters’ communications.

At the end of the Consultation period the results will be reported to the Council Cabinet in late autumn 2011 for a decision as to whether or not to take the proposal forward. If agreed implementation will start from April 2012.

What happens after we have saved the Library Funding?

Once full funding has been secured we then have the further issue that the Vale District Council is proposing a redevelopment of the site on which the library building is located (as well as this Hall). We need to ensure that this redevelopment results in an improved facility for the Botley Library at the heart of the development.

You can hear more about this if you stay for the Parish Council meeting which follows this meeting. However, the Save Botley Library Campaign will be seeking that the facilities available for the Botley Library in any new development are an improvement over the current library.

Thank you for coming tonight and thank you again for all of the support that you have given to the Save Botley Library campaign. We need one more big push now with completing the Consultation Feedback Forms and then we should get to keep the Library service that Botley deserves.

If you have any questions, I or one of my colleagues on the Steering Group will endeavour to answer them.

Save Botley Library Public Meeting on Thursday 23rd June

Save Botley Library Public Meeting

SEACOURT HALL
THURSDAY 23rd JUNE
7pm
 
Please come to the meeting to hear an update on
the campaign to save Botley Library!

We need your continued support throughout the County Council's Library Service Consultation process.

At the meeting you can collect a copy of the guidance notes which
have been prepared to help you complete the Consultation Feedback Form effectively and to the library's advantage.


The library is not yet saved, we have taken a huge step forward,
but not yet reached our destination.

NOTES ON COMPLETING THE OXFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL LIBRARY SERVICE CONSULTATION FEEDBACK FORM

THE Save Botley Library Campaign recommends that as many of the local residents as possible complete the Oxfordshire County Council Library Service Consultation Feedback Form to show our strength of feeling over the Library. These are available on-line at the County Council website or from the Library. Below are some suggestions for handling some of the trickier questions on the form.


QUESTION 1: Answer YES. Ticking either of the other two boxes may lead to your contribution being discounted.

QUESTIONS 4 and 5: We suggest you agree with both these statements (as their proposal is to retain Botley Library) but enter reservations as to their intentions towards the county library service as a whole in the comments box.

QUESTION 6: Answer NO, but you may wish to add a comment that all Oxfordshire Libraries should be fully funded and not part run by volunteers.

QUESTION 7: This might be the place to remind the Council that the law requires them to provide the whole county with an effective and efficient library service, which may not be fully met if volunteers are widely used.

QUESTION 8: Answer NO, since any other answer could be used to support a Council case for removing funding and professional staff from Botley Library.

QUESTION 10: As you can only tick one box, tick the first box – “Library Service Customer” to ensure that your responses are taken into account.

QUESTIONS 11 TO 14: Complete as you see fit. However if you have a disability if you are able to please tick Yes to Question 13 as this will help the case that Botley Library needs to support you.

YOUR CONTACT DETAILS: Once we have achieved our aim of saving Botley Library the Campaign group will form an independent Friends of Botley Library group. However if you do wish to give your details to the Council please make it clear in your answer to QUESTION 8 above that you are not volunteering, but only wish to join the Botley Library Friends group.


Thank you for your continued support and please make sure that your friends and neighbours are aware that everyone in a household (including the under 16s) can and should fill in a separate Consultation Feedback Form.


Save Botley Library Campaign

Campaigners cautiously optimistic after huge council U-turn on libraries

Save Botley Library's Neil Clark (centre), plus Botley library users Bashir El-Barhdadr (left) and Bill Cook (right) celebrate the good news.


The Oxford Mail reports:

ALL of Oxfordshire’s 43 libraries could be saved from closure under the new proposals unveiled yesterday.
The county council gave in after an unprecedented public backlash against a plan revealed last November to end funding for 20 branches.
It is now pledging to provide free buildings, book stocks, access to the council’s computer network and professional support from librarians to all of Oxfordshire’s libraries.
A core list of 22 libraries, including seven on the council’s original hit list, (BOTLEY LIBRARY IS ON THE 'CORE LIST' )would remain fully staffed in order to meet the council’s duty in law to provide a “comprehensive and efficient”library service.
A consultation on the new plan will last four months and no changes would be implemented until the start of the 2012-13 financial year next April.

Neil Clark, of Save Botley Library, said: “We wanted all along to keep Botley Library as a professionally run, fully-staffed public library, and I’m happy that it will be. “But as a group in solidarity with other libraries, we do not want to see any forced to take volunteers.”

He added: “We argued all the way through that the original plans were in complete breach of the council’s legal requirements, and now we feel vindicated.
“The whole thing has been really badly handled by the council.”


You can read the whole report here.

Also, another Oxford Mail report on the council's huge - and very welcome- U-turn can be read here.

Save Botley Library campaign update- election edition

Although Oxfordshire County Council announced in March that they had “torn-up” their proposals to end funding to 20 of the county’s libraries, this does not mean that Botley Library is safe from having its funding withdrawn. The Council are “rethinking” their library policy through a Public Consultation from mid-May until September, to determine how they can achieve the cost savings from the budget that was passed on 15th February. So the Save Botley Library Campaign continues and we will shortly let you know more about the Consultation and the events we will be having through the summer while this is running. Maximising the number of people completing the Consultation and telling the Council that we want Botley Library to remain open run by trained staff and librarians is essential to achieving this objective.

In the meantime we have the local council elections on Thursday 5th May and a number of the Save Botley Library Steering Group (Neil Clark, Ag MacKeith, Andrew Pritchard among others) will be standing for North Hinksey Parish Council seats. In addition our Vice-Chair, Neil Clark, will be standing as an Independent candidate in the election for the North Hinksey and Wytham Ward of the Vale of White Horse District Council. We thought it important to find out where each of the Vale DC candidates stands regarding funding for the library and the provision of space for it in the proposed Botley redevelopment so we have asked them all to reply to the following questions:

Do you support the campaign to keep Botley Library open, run by trained staff and librarians? If so, what form of support would you propose to provide to ensure that this objective is achieved?

If elected, what would you do to ensure that proposed redevelopment of the Botley shopping precinct includes provision to house the library, in a space that is at least as big as the existing facilities (and preferably larger)

We have received responses from the majority of candidates in the Ward, all of which indicate their support for keeping the library open and providing space for it in the Botley redevelopment. However we urge you to read the full text of the responses which we have published on our website. You may also wish to question candidates yourself to ensure that you are clear about their position on the Botley Library before you vote on the 5th.

Thanks to all your support we have helped to get Oxfordshire County Council to backtrack on the potential Library closure list published in November. We now need to prepare ourselves to make our opinions clear to OCC through the Public Consultation; which it is vital that we all complete if we are to Save Botley Library.