Wednesday 4 April 2012

Friern Barnet library to shut - ever to reopen?

The Barnet Council cabinet meeting tonight voted to go ahead and close Friern Barnet library.

They hope to save a few pounds by shutting a thriving hub of the local community and - eventually - opening a library in the Arts Depot a long way away. If this sounds like robbing Peter to pay Paul, that would probably be too generous. It's more stupid even than that.

The Save Friern Barnet library campaign have called for wellwishers to join them in saying goodbye to their library at 3pm tomorrow. Its doors are due to close at 4pm. Please get along there with your angry placards - and remember that feeling next time you are in a polling booth.

I understand there might be a legal challenge to the closure, but I think that only a change of political regime in Barnet is going to save this facility, and the many more that could close in its wake in the months to come. (Figures suggest that about 88% of the projected public spending cuts have yet to happen.)

And if and when Barnet does vote Labour back in to run the council, we should have a long list of demands handy to hold them to!

Re-opening Friern Barnet library will be at the head of that list!

2 comments:

David Duff said...

My congratulations to the tax-payers of Friern!

Citizen Barnet said...

I think most of them would rather their money were spent on their library than on consultants such as Agilysis 'advising' Barnet council how to privatise everything.