Quiet Area in Willesden Library

In yesterday's post, I may not have explained about the need for quiet areas in libraries.  As a universal service, libraries need to cater for users with different and sometimes conflicting needs.  People who need libraries for quiet study and noisy children are an obvious example.  Fortunately, the new Willesden Library has such a dedicated quiet area at the top. 

The Saved Willesden Library Fragment

One of the most controversial aspects of the original plans for the new Willesden Library Centre was the proposal to demolish the last fragments of the former 1894 building (pictured above).  Such was the outcry that Brent Council went back to the drawing board to fit the old building into the new Library that has just opened. 

This is full of ironies.  The 1894 fragment had not actually been part of the 1980s Library Centre at all.  In fact it was operated as an office by the Brent Irish Advisory Service (BIAS), a small charity.  Therefore it was not a public building at all.  Contrary to many people's impressions, it was not wholly a building from 1894.  In fact, about half of it was built in the 1980s when the Victorian building was demolished.

It is now incorporated into the new Library as a sort of semi-detached room.  BIAS used it as a two storey building, but the upper floor has been taken out to give a high ceilinged room, as you can see here:

I gather that in public consultation, no one actually identified a use for it, which should perhaps lead people to think about what they want to do when they campaign to "save" something.  I think it could be used as a performance space for book readings and the like.  This would have the disadvantage of separating the book reading from the actual books in the library.  Given that one of the prime functions of having a book reading from the library perspective is to encourage the audience to borrow books, this is not ideal.  Conversely, the room's isolation behind closed doors means that noise would not carry into the library as it sometimes does at, say, Kilburn Library which would help give a more flexible range of timings.

Benches by Furness Park

I was glad to see that the street benches by Furness Pocket Park were replaced recently.  This is what it used to look like:

And this is what it now looks like:

Much nicer, but it would be good if the whole area by the park could be cleaned up with some consistent paving and street furniture.  This would help enhance the park itself. 

Barnardos and Brent Children Centres

I am glad to see that Brent Council has reached a deal with Barnardos to keep Children Centres open across the Borough.  The Tory government's cuts is forcing many other authorities to close many of their children centres, so the Barnardo option is an imaginative way around it.  It would be interesting to have more detail as to how the scheme works, but it shows that Brent officers can still respond to problems imaginatively.

Willesden Library Brondesbury Park Frontage

The new Willesden Library is now up and running, but still far from finished.  Aside from all the building work still going on around the place, parts of the Centre itself are still empty.  Nonetheless, I am sure it will develop well over time.  One easy win would be some window displays on the Brondesbury Park frontage.  This would have been impossible in the old 1980s library, but should be entirely viable with the new building.

The former library had a really poor relationship with the surrounding streets, as can be seen from the photos to be found on this site.  Actually I think the graffiti shown actually improved the look of the old building, especially on the Grange Road frontage.  Now, however, we have the new building which will look outward, and (in so doing) help attract people to all the activities within.

Sticking to the Rules

I hope that whatever happened with the Kids Company is properly investigated.  It certainly looks like politicians over riding legitimate financial checks as a result of favouritism.  If so, I hope the relevant ministers get due punishment.  It should also be a reminder of how important these kind of rules are.  I often get the impression that some groups think that if they call themselves "community" or "volunteer" somehow financial rules shouldn't apply.

Shared Surface Around Willesden Library Centre

I have argued before that the area around Wembley Library is actually capable of being used for complementary activities in what is effectively a kind of co-location.  I have similar hopes of the areas currently being paved at the back and on the Grange Road side of Willesden Library. Hopefully, this will assuage the concerns of those who supported the Town Green application. 

The Grange Road side looks closer to completion, although it is still being paved:

The area should accommodate some disabled parking, but it is also (like part of Harlesden Town Centre) is a shared surface scheme so that the kerb level is quite limited.

A similar flexibility will be possible in the area at the back.  Once the Cafe is let (which be located at the back on the Brondesbury Park side), I imagine it will will want to use that area for outside paving.

Incidentally, the cafe is obliged by its procurement criteria to sell Fairtrade goods.  I hope that they will be publicized better than in the equivalent cafe in Wembley Library.

Willesden Library Learning from Brent Civic Centre

The new Willesden Library Centre is now up and running, although it is still just the Library and the rebuilt Brent Museum with a lot of building work continuing in the surroundings (see below).  This is not so different from the early period of Wembley Library which has subsequently become such a great success.  A period of snagging on big projects such as these is inevitable. 

I am glad to see that lessons seem to have been learnt from the early stages of the Civic Centre, with both water dispensers and signage installed from the beginning this time.  The example below is from the lift.  Nonetheless, I think a bit more will have to emerge.  For example, the customer service bit is far from obvious as you come in.  A friend of mine went all the way to the top and down again before finding it on the ground floor.

Many of the lessons from the Civic Centre seem quite slight.  For example, the early stages of Brent Civic Centre problems with light carpets being soiled.  The carpets in Willesden Library Centre are much darker, and I gather they are carpet tiles rather than carpets, which means that darkly stained areas can be more easily removed.  Similarly I understand that the chairs are easier to clean.

That might seem quite trivial, but it can make a big difference to library users.

Brent Council's Ongoing Employment Issues

Martin Francis' blog Wembley Matters, whilst often unfairly negative about Brent Council and openly politically partisan, has done a good service in highlighting concerns about certain employment practices in the Council.  These have largely centred on the Rosemarie Clark case.

His most recent posts highlight an extremely unusual semi-public statement by Cllr Butt on the issue.

In fact, he kind of problems that have been a concern to me since 2012, and in my view go well beyond the individuals concerned and damage the whole organisation.  It would be much less worrying if the Clarke case were indeed the only instance, but it is not.  I have mentioned these problems a number of times.  I think it is unlikely that the Council will be able to "move forward" as he puts it until these matters have been credibly and publicly investigated.  

Registering to Vote in Brent

Letters are already going out in Brent to register to vote.  This is especially important as the register for this year will be used as the baseline for drawing up constituency boundaries.  More information about registering is to be found here. 

WLWA Progresses Energy from Waste Plant

West London Waste Authority (WLWA) committed to diverting virtually all its waste from landfill back in 2013.  Instead the waste will go to an Energy from waste plant in the West of England.  It recently released an update.  This will be an even more dramatic change across the whole of waste management in West London, than the introduction of Alternate Weekly Collections which is now being imitated by Ealing. 

Martin Francis on the Former Preston Library

Martin Francis reports that the former Preston Library is going to be used for school places again.  This means that the group using it under temporary license will have to move out.  What I find odd about this is that the many problems of the Council just handing the building over to a group have been in the public domain for some time.  In particular, the notion of a peppercorn rent seems wholly unrealistic.

As an addendum, I see that the group gives a precise figure for usage in June, 663.  Measuring performance at volunteer libraries seems essential to me, and I regret that it is not done more often.  In public libraries, June tends to be an unusually good month, but if we assume that for the Preston establishment it is average that would give an annualised footfall of 7,956.  That might seem like a lot, but it demonstrates that a public library service such as Brent Libraries is operating on a totally different scale to the volunteer libraries that are sometimes suggested as their replacement. 

In 2014/15, the Brent library with the lowest footfall was Kingsbury, which had a footfall of 146,870, or 12,239 in an average month.  Brent's other libraries averaged much higher levels.  When people such as Ed Vaizey advocate volunteer libraries they really are suggesting replacing the public library service with something fundamentally different.

Library Opening Hours in Brent

I remarked in my post on the opening of Willesden Library that it has different opening hours to what became standard as part of the Libraries Transformation Project.  Brent Libraries are due for another review, although I doubt whether it will be as far reaching as the 2011 one.  It would be interesting to see the data as to whether a 9am opening is preferable to (say) the equivalent time in the evening.  I have also heard people argue that Sunday opening would be welcome.  Willesden Library is the only Brent library to open on Sunday mornings as opposed to Sunday afternoons, so it will be interesting to see how popular that is.  Incidentally, I wonder how many Council libraries in the UK still open on Sundays at all?

Inside the New Willesden Library Centre

The new Willesden Library opened yesterday, and I must say it is even more spectacular than I imagined.  As you can see from my previous post, the exterior still has builders all round it, who will continue working on the housing that pays for the whole project for quite a while to come, but the inside is now functioning as a library. 

The library is on three floors with a central light well in the middle.  The light looks like this from the ground floor:

The ground floor is too big for a single picture.  Here is the part nearest Brondesbury Park:

Unlike the old Willesden Library, you can actually see out on to the street:

Looking more towards the back, you can see some of the ipads laid out:

When the builders finally depart, it will be possible to access the library from the rear as well as the front:

Now let's move up the stairs to the first floor:

The first floor is huge:

It has displays around the light well drawing on local history.  I suspect these are intended to draw you up to the new Brent Museum on the second floor. 

The second floor has yet more books, and yet more computers.  This how it looks at the back.  The windows face towards the housing.

As I was going round, one of the library staff started chatted to me.  She said that rebuilding the library had been the subject of some controversy, a fact of which I was aware.  I defy anyone who can remember the old Willesden Library Centre to say that the new one is not a huge improvement.  I shall probably do some more posts in a while, particularly on the new Museum and the exhibition spaces that have yet to open.  At the moment, I will just leave one last view of the light well:

What will be in the New Willesden Library Centre?

The new Willesden Library Centre opens on Monday morning.  Full details of the services available are here. 

Willesden Library Itself
Unlike other Brent libraries, Willesden is promised to open from 9am on week days (the rest open from 10am).  Closing time on each weekday is 8pm, which again gives it longer opening hours than most Brent libraries, which only open that time for two or three days a week.  Weekend opening is also slightly longer, with Willesden starting at 10am on Sundays, unlike Brent's other libraries which all open from noon on Sundays.

I assume that these opening hours are ones where the library is fully staffed i.e. not the situation where only self service is available in Wembley Library from 8am to 10am.  Whilst that is welcome, it is obviously not as good as having properly staffed opening hours.  

We are promised that the library will also feature:

• the latest fiction, non-fiction and information for adults and children
• comfortable furnishings
• loan and reference books for adults and children in many languages including Tamil, Gujurati, Polish, Arabic, Urdu, French, Spanish and Portuguese
• a spacious area for children and parents with books and reading space
• 66 public computers
• colour photocopier, printer and scanner
• 14 iPads
• over 120 study spaces in the main library
• teen area
• IT facilities and Wi-Fi
• free online resources such as E-book downloads, E-magazines and learning courses
• DVDs
• audio books
• newspapers and magazines
• A series of public events of diverse kinds.  

As Well as The Library...
The new library centre will also host Brent Museum and archives as well as a gallery space with a number of exhibitions planned for the Summer.  The building will have a number of other spaces available for hire.  Unlike the old building, these have been designed to be suitable for performances (The old Willesden Centre spaces had such poor sound insulation that neighbours would complain).  The library also has a cafe, which is one of the features that makes Wembley Library such a success.  Finally, there are a number of self service kiosks for accessing Council services.

That is all an enormous step forward which only came about because we pursued the Libraries Transformation Project to a conclusion, and overcame the often spurious objections to the development. 

New Willesden Green Library Pictures

The new Willesden Green Library is opening on 27 July, as the last stage of the Libraries Transformation Project begun back in 2011.  I gather that copies of Go Set a Watchman have been ordered specially for the opening day.  The new library will have a capacity of around 40,000 books, which is even more than the refurbished Kilburn Library. 

I have mentioned before that the old Willesden Library had a terrible relationship with the surrounding area. The new area is still a building site, but looks much better in terms of interacting with its surroundings.

This is the remains of the former 1890s library that used to be on the site.  Actually, most of the building was reconstructed when the 1890s library was mostly demolished in the 1980s, so it ac6tually fairly modern.  Some think that keeping this 1890s style extension on to a modern building looks a bit odd, but there was undoubtedly great public demand for it to remain.

This is some of the new housing that pays for the new cultural centre.  It is seen from the Brondesbury Park side.

This is what some of the anti-library people described as the "canyon" between the new library centre (to the left) and the new housing to the right.  I think, that once all the building stuff is cleared away, it could be a nice public space.

This is a better view of the new housing as it looks on to the back of the library centre.

This is a view of the new library centre from the Grange Road side looking towards Willesden High Road. 

This is a full on view of the Grange Road side taken from the interim library in George Furness House showing more the detailing.  The 1980s library centre simply had a blank featureless wall here, which was visually so dull that I have been unable to find any photo of it for contrast.

Although it is still a bit difficult to visualise it at the moment because of all the builder's stuff still around, I think the new building should look really good.

Mahatma Gandhi House in Wembley

I see Mahatma Gandhi House has been sold for housing.  Unfortunately, Brent Council will not get a capital receipt, as it was only renting there.  Still, it may allow the Council to save some money, as it was locked into a lease there which continued after the Council moved to the Civic Centre.

Brent Council Library Closures

Public Libraries News has a rather gloomy prognosis that Council's that have already gone through a round of library cuts will soon see another.  For many this is true.  He cites the Isle of Wight and North Yorkshire, but there will be others coming up.

I doubt, however, whether we will see any actual closures in Brent (indeed Brent is just about to open the new library in Willesden). 

Although there is a new library strategy due to come forward for consultation soon, I would be very surprised if any closures result.  I know that library closures were put forward as an option in the last two years, but it was a paper option, which no one really considered seriously.  Indeed one of the unintended benefits of the furore surrounding the 2011 library proposals is that there is likely to be little enthusiasm for another round.

More subtly, the litigation in 2011/2012, also gives the Council a firmly defensible baseline.  The library needs of the Borough were assessed, according to the judge, "with rigour" and upheld as sensible.  The same settlement was put to the Secretary of State for overturning, only for the request to be rejected.  Of course, Brent Libraries can also now demonstrate a remarkable record of success under the same project. 

The danger now is not so much one of closures as the kind of hollowing out that I sought to avoid in 2011.  We have seen bits and pieces of this in Brent, most notably the cut in the book fund in this year's budget.  However, so far Brent libraries have retained crucial aspects like seven day opening.  The danger is that hours and other things will be reduced little by little in a way that attracts little publicity, but has a huge effect on the service. 

Willesden Green Library Opening

The opening of Willesden Green's new library, the last stage in Brent Council's Libraries Transformation Project, is due on 27 July.  This means that the interim service will close on 23 July.  I hope the new library will be as great a success as its counterpart in Wembley.

Kilburn Calling

Cllr John Duffy has started a blog on Kilburn and Brent Council matters.  I imagine it will be interesting as he develops it.  He makes one accusation which is quite worrying.

He suggests that some one at Brent Council is snooping on Councillor emails.  He doesn't actually prove this in his blogpost.  As I read it, Council officers could have become aware of his correspondence once residents contacted him, but if he is correct, Council officers are operating unethically and possibly illegally.

This is because, as a councillor, John almost certainly has to deal with confidential information belonging to his constituents.  For example, pursuing a housing case might well involve medical or financial details that the constituent can expect to keep private.  It would be reasonable for Cllr Duffy to quote such information to housing officers dealing with the case, but if a member of Brent's IT department were accessing it that strikes me as a breach of confidentiality, and therefore of data protection laws.  I am not sure what the Law says more generally about snooping, but I suspect that John would have a case that his emails can't just be randomly trawled through.

The former, and for all I know, current policy of Brent Council on such matters is that electronic communications can only be monitored if there is "reasonable suspicion" that they are being misused in this way.  I recall this from discussing it with the Borough Solicitor, who was the senior officer responsible at the time. 

Nor is this an abstract issue.  It came up when former Cllr Dhiraj Kataria made false allegations against a colleague, that had to be examined in a lengthy report by a solicitor.  Part of that case (dealt with 3.17 of the Brent Council covering report) referred to an email sent on 23 December to Cllr Paul Lorber.  Cllr Kataria denied sending it and cast aspersions on various colleagues, but these was discovered to be untrue once a technical investigation was ordered.  However, this was only done on 28 March 2012, after Cllr Paul Lorber had failed to answer the question about who had sent the email to him.  The passage in the Solicitor's report dealing with this issue (4.147-4.152) mentions Human Rights protection in a gfeneral way, without going into detail.

I think that if John really believes that his emails are or have been intercepted, he should ask Brent's new Chief Executive to order an investigation, and whoever has been intercepting the communications should be subject to disciplinary action.