Once again Camden Council have started a consultation during the school holidays - fortunately, at least, this one goes on till October! But it's a vital consultation which affects many people, especially impacting on young children and their families about the future of our libraries.

West Hampstead library is particularly vulnerable to cuts and even closure as it is expensive to run being on two floors and needing extra staff. Possible closure is just one of the options on the table which will be decided by Camden's Labour cabinet later this autumn. Last time there was a really serious threat to our library (as well as a number of others) it was nearly twenty years ago and at least the decision was taken by the full Council. This was a famous victory for the libraries, with a number of Labour Councillors defying the leadership and voting to keep them open. I hope today's Labour Councillors would show the same courage - to vote for what is right rather than just obeying the leadership. ( Although over the planning applications for Liddell Road, sadly, the views of local people did not prevail sufficiently strongly).

Meanwhile a busy community campaign has sprung up to support our local library - across party lines and under the overall umbrella of the Friends of West Hampstead Library ( FoWHL). We held a very successful street stall with people queuing up to sign the petition and join FoWHL on a warm Saturday a week ago, and plan others at the end of the month. There will also be a public meeting to put ideas to the Labour cabinet member, Cllr Abdul Hai, on September 10th in the Library at 7.30pm. Anything you can suggest to help make the library balance its books for example by extending sessions, opening Sundays for crafts, later evenings for book events or study sessions or configuring the space more efficiently will be welcome! Please come along and show West Hampstead definitely supports its local library!

Also you can respond to the consultation on line at www.camden.gov.uk/futurelibraries. Or by picking up a copy in the library.
And sign the petition at: http://tinyurl.com/okxnpjz

Please help us all to Save our Library!

A walk round West Hampstead - the Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

Walking around in West Hampstead and Fortune Green today in the wonderful sunshine, it occurred to me how many things there are to celebrate in our area and, curiously, how many of these only arrived comparatively recently. Some- if not all- changes are definitely good!
I was delighted to attend the first anniversary celebration today of the Sherriff Centre – our local church with a post office (and much more!) and to record my heartiest congratulation to Fr Andrew Cain for his vision and tenacity in making it happen!
Then I visited the Farmers Market which seems to have gone from strength to strength. Busy and popular, it owes a debt to ex West Hampstead Lib Dem Councillor, Gillian Risso-Gill for getting the project off the ground and making it the success it is today. For the record, I bought some delicious bread, a joint for my Sunday lunch, some lovely bacon and chops and had a happy time exploring the plant stall.
Further back down the road, I managed to blank out the Ballymore development which, I fear, will take us all a long time to get used to, (and even longer to celebrate as one of the best things about West Hampstead!) But we do now have our agreed Neighbourhood Development Plan (with thanks to James Earl, Keith Moffitt and a host of others who fought a cross-party campaign to win a ”Yes” vote in our local referendum). This should give us a local say in opposing and moderating unsuitable local developments. The next big issue will be the Travis Perkins site which has already sparked opposition by residents in Lymington Road.


Further up the road, after my regular visit to our much loved West Hampstead Library (see previous post) I was delighted by the variety of interesting shops which have appeared in West End Lane in recent months and by the hanging flower baskets kindly supplied by the newly energised West Hampstead Business Association who have a host of ideas for brightening up our high street.

As I got up to Fortune Green, my delight lessened slightly at the sight of the neighbourhood nuisance which is the Monte Cristo shisha café, but cheered up by the “No Parking” notices outside. Sadly, these are only temporary while the footway opposite is being repaired, and will probably lead to their customers parking their flashy cars all over the area! There is still no news on the enforcement appeal against Camden’s decision to refuse them planning permission – the government inspectorate is apparently short of staff and is taking its time!
But Fortune Green itself always cheers me up – on a lovely sunny day, it was full of people enjoying themselves including a dog who was so good dribbling a football, he should have been signed up for the England squad! All in all a good morning in West Hampstead – I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else!

How we can ALL save our library

Local authorities are in a very difficult situation. They are being starved of resources by the swivel-eyed Scrooges in Whitehall, who still seem convinced they can cut back to the bone without affecting public services. Camden Council, faced with similar problems to other London Councils, is better placed than some, but will have suffered virtually halving its budget by 2017. Many services are statutory (care for the elderly and waste collection to name two services where costs are rising) but other services don’t have the same level of protection.


Sadly, the Labour cabinet has worked out it needs to save £800,000 from its library budget. A consultation exercise has been launched this week – it’s online at futurelibraries@camden.gov.uk where you can find all sorts of costs and statistics about individual libraries as well the questionnaire which contains a wide range of cost-saving options. Thy say nothing is ruled out – even for the sake of argument- closing Swiss Cottage library! But it is crystal clear West Hampstead library is at risk. It is expensive to run (staff needed on 2 floors) and is not as well visited as libraries in other areas. It is also not considered to be in an area of deprivation which is one criteria for maintaining a library in Camden.

Because our library is at risk, we all need to campaign to save it and provide it with a future. West Hampstead Cllr Phil Rosenberg has started an online petition http://tinyurl.com/okxnpjz which already has a large number of signatures and is supported by the Friends of West Hampstead Library (FoWHL) and is inspiring a cross-party campaign of the type that was recently so successful in supporting the Neighbourhood Development Plan (see next post) So please get signing and tell your friends and neighbours! Also the future of our library will be discussed at the forthcoming Area Action Group – details to be announced – at which you will be able to question councillors and officers.

Let’s not just leave it to a few people – let’s make this a genuine West hampstead camapign involving everyone and send a message to the Town Hall: “HANDS OFF OUR LIBRARY!”