Welcome to Burnt Oak cafe-cum-library-cum-dole-office-cum-any other offers?

Barnet residents probably know by now that the council is carrying out a Strategic Libraries Review (SLR). Strategic. It sounds very high-powered. If you go onto the consultation website (closes 30 November) and take part in their survey you will discover that it isn't.

It is quite tricky trawling through the long list of questions without finally agreeing that yes, you think it's a good idea if libraries share facilities with benefits offices, Citizens Advice Bureaux, community centres, etc. But if you think that libraries should remain, pretty much, as libraries, stick to your guns. I'm sure that there will be some value in some of us who think like that taking part in this survey.

However, more important will be the other activities that people do, for example, signing the Save Barnet's libraries petition. For behind all this talk of strategy is the council's simple plan to - cut libraries, possibly closing some libraries altogether, or, at least, making them share space with many other council (and non-council) services.

For a warning of what this might mean, I invite you to visit Burnt Oak library. A lot of money has been spent doing up Burnt Oak library and putting in on the ground floor desks for benefits, HM Revenue and Customs, etc. The library is almost a token element there now, and I've heard that Nick Walkley is saying that the whole place is too crowded. Well, I don't know about that, but it is an echoing, rather cold and soulless place, with washable rubber floors - in case people disgrace themselves, I presume.

What else could they fit in there to make the place pay? Maybe some hairdressing chairs and a fruit and veg stall.

I managed to lay my hands on a copy of Barnet First the other day and discovered the origins, perhaps, of councillor Robert Rams' suggestion that, once the SLR has been completed, library books might be issued from Starbucks rather than your traditional library. There is a report in there about a laudable library outreach scheme, "Bookstart", that enables parents to get together and read and borrow books for their children. The one featured is held in a Starbucks off the A5.

One user says:

"I think bringing the library service here is a really good idea as sometimes I can't make it up to the local library which is... quite a distance from me."

Fair enough. But what you'll notice she doesn't say is: I think we should close libraries and all meet up in coffee shops instead.

If Barnet does close libraries, everyone is going to have a longer journey to their local library.

I also think it's wrong to hold public events in private, commercial spaces. Why should Starbucks be making bucks out of our book borrowing?

Libraries campaign grows apace

I don't think there has ever been an easier sell on a public stall than persuading people to campaign to save Barnet's libraries. People were queuing in Mill Hill Broadway today to sign Rog T's petition. (If you would like a paper version, visit his blog and follow the instructions.)

A few people wanted to know which libraries will close: the thing is, we don't know. It's for us to show that our libraries are so popular, that none of them should close. As far as I know, Barnet council's Strategic Library Review is underway already, so it is very important that people make their views known early on.

You can find out your councillors' details here to send them an email. You might spare one also for Robert Rams, the architect of Barnet's library review. He looks forward (or so he says) to a day when there are "pop-up libraries" in locations all across the borough. These might include in Starbucks or Tesco.

Perhaps there is an argument for that as a supplement to actual, bricks and mortar libraries, but it should only be a supplement, not a substitute.

Has the time passed for the council to actually own and manage assets, for instance, museums?

Barnet council's Budget and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee met this evening to debate questions such as this as it launched its Draft Estate Strategy [item 9].

(I'm last with the news today, I admit it, but I have to comment!)

The Times series discussed the paper with councillor Daniel Thomas. He said it had nothing in common with flogging off the family silver in order to plug gaps in the council's finances.

Among those things up for possible sale are allotments and libraries. The council has to provide a library service, so that might be run out of leased property, and bundled in with other council services. (I know this because I am reading a paper on the proposed Strategic Library Review.)

But do they have to provide museums? With no apparent irony, the paper discussed tonight says:

There are some property types which have a clear market value now. They have few interdependencies, do not need huge amounts of work to get ready for sale and which can be sold as they stood with lower than normal risk of achieving full value or possibly where the time has passed for the council to actually own and manage assets for instance museums.

The time has passed. The time has passed. In what sense has the time passed? Since when did time passing change whether it is useful or not to have a museum, a council-run museum, educating residents and informing them about the area in which they live? That time has not passed. That time will never pass. That is probably eternal. The only thing that has changed is that Barnet council is skint and philistine enough to consider flogging its museums, and anything else it can get away with flogging.

This is in the paper discussed tonight:

There are a number of assets where disposal is likely to be very sensitive for instance disposal of key parts of the agricultural estate [allotments] where borough ownership has clearly shaped the ambiance and sense of place. ...The same could be said for libraries and sports clubs etc. Navigating through these disposals would require significant resources and could face public opprobrium. How that could be done to ensure that economic gain was assured compared to long term cost to deliver?

As I said, I am reading the Strategic Library Review paper for the next Cabinet meeting. It deserves to be read alongside the Estate paper because you can be sure that a key purpose of the Strategic Library Review will be to find a way to persuade us that flogging libraries is a good idea.