Strategic Asset Review – Timetable for Library Closures
18 Mar 2009

Arising from the Strategic Asset Review and confirmed by Council February 9th, Wirral Borough Council has now announced the timetable for the closure of 11 Wirral Libraries.

The closures will happen in three phases. The dates and locations are:

Phase 1: Saturday 4th April to be the last day of service

-Higher Bebington, New Ferry, Ridgeway and Wallasey Village

Phase 2: Saturday 2nd May to be the last day of service

-Irby, Prenton and Seacombe

Phase 3: Saturday 4th July to be the last day of service

-Beechwood, Eastham, Hoylake and Woodchurch

This will not affect current library members and membership cards will remain valid in all other libraries. They can continue to be used when accessing remote services through the Library website such as renewals, requests and use of Library Reference subscriptions.

Anyone wishing to access the Home Reader service should contact the staff at Wallasey Central Library 0151 639 2334 or Birkenhead Central Library on 0151 652 6106 to discuss how we can help.

anyone feel up to taking photos of the inside and outside of their local library

subject to ombudsmen review and the inquest.

A photo? Only if there is a local councillor nailed to the front door

Snod

If part of our council tax is to pay for local comunities ie Library etc. As they are closed down should'nt we get a reduction in council tax, as we are paying for a service which we are not getting?

Are we likely to once again face closures following Manchesters' lead


news

Can and will they be considering having a go again in today's economic climate.
Methinks I'd better get the old brownie camera out to get some pics of the libraries now, just in case.

I spoke to senior library managers at a public consultation evening earlier this year. They said there are no plans to close, out-source or privatise any Wirral libraries. However, given the way this government is cutting money to Local Authorities, who can say what will happen on the future. Even the library managers said they can't see more than a year into the future.

Still, if we can find money for nuclear weapons, illegal wars and the Olympics, surely we can afford properly funded libraries. They are a cornerstone of a civilised, educated and literate society. Not everyone wants to or can afford to go on Amazon whenever they want a book.

Do not trust them - don't forget we still have the rump of Foulke's ("I don't use them - so what's the point of them")regime - and they are now in overall control - plenty of the Labour councillors were made (and deservedly so) to look very foolish and self-serving in 2009 - they will not have forgotten that and revenge - I am certain is on the cards....

Be prepared to man the barriers and repel the pirates again !

Yes don't forget it was the labour clowns (no betterr or worse than the Tory or Lib Dem clowns) who decided to close libraries swimming pools and everything else on their damned list. They have got overall power until 2014 as there are no local elections next year. They have to save £28 million next year and £42 million the following year. (by the way if you add up the amount each council in the country has to "save" in the next 2 years it comes to the £12 billion spent on the Olympics)

Expect to see service privatised, outsourced, and cut left right and centre. They are doing the groundwork now.

Think you missed out not adding the lotto money, they halved the jackpot as soon as the Olympics were announced.

Hmmmmmmmm

Have a look at this, Serco were in line last time I believe:

http://www.serco.com/markets/leisure/index.asp

and then have a look at this! third one down. Woodgate,Hook.
Does this mean that Serco have been renting office space in a building that Merseyside Pension Fund owned ,maintained and fully refurbished?

http://www.hollishockley.co.uk/index.asp?PageKind=NewsList

Senior library or leisure centre managers, wouldn't have a clue until it's too late.

A little something about Serco, should they ever be in the running again.

http://www.tpuc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5280

Well done Granny,very informative.It's strange that we haven't heard of this all pervasive organisation before.It would be interesting to know which MP's have a connection with Serco as share holders,directorships etc.

What always gets me is how these private companies can make a profit (which it's what they are in it for) as against public run facilities.Someone at the top (possibly the wrong person for the job) in the public ones is making the wrong decisions somewhere be it by over or under staffing or the way the system works.
Why can't the public ones(who use our taxes) do exactly the same as the private ones that are making profit.

We should realise that in any organisation, the Peter Principle* operates. In general, in publicly funded enterprises, this is less likely to be recognised and acted upon. In a private organisation driven by profit, it's more likely to be spotted.

*Peter Principle: "In any organisation, a person will be promoted to his/her level of incompetence".

Most of the privatised companies in this country don't actually make a profit of their own accord. It's just subsidised by the taxpayer.

There seems to be some ridiculous idea in this country [since 1979] that private is good and public is bad. Such an idea is often spouted on these pages too by an inordinate number of Tory boys. The likes of libraries and hospital shouldn't be run for profit. They should be run for the benefit of society, even if it is at a loss. Of course, they should be run competently.

As for private companies being the panacea for all our troubles, well that's just crap. The amount of scandals, greed and general barstard in British private-sector companies is truly breathtaking. G4S being just the latest example.

Yes, I realise that this will be off topic but only as Serco came into topic on the previous page. Go to Serco.com and click 'defence'(if you haven't already). Very worrying, I would think. Reads like total control!

Sorry for the interruption.

I thought we had a Ministry of Defence to do all that granny.
'Tis frightening, what next
Decimate the armed forces, let them supply soldiers,build bigger and better missiles costing billions of £s, maybe take control of the prisons (forgot someone else has their finger in that slice of the pie)
We should get back to Nationalising our sold-off assets such as gas,electricity and water amongst other things where we can control prices a bit fairer by use of our votes at election times.

they big themselves up way way too much

The reason is Derek that the contracts are given out and are still paid for in part by the authority. The Council or outsourcing body still pays to run the service. It's just that the subsidy becomes a fixed cost with no hidden overspend or staff wages or holidays to pay for.

To outsource the Parks Wirral Council would still have paid about £7,500,000 over 10 years direct to the company running them. The company would take all the staff on a transfer of pay undertaking and then sack them after 3 months and re-employ on half their wages, The company takes all the income from Golf, crematorium and elsewhere and "maximise" their profits. The staff left behind have little or no choice and are sacked if they dissent.

It is a dystopian set up and a return to the Victorian values of doff your cap or else. The new operators run the service by fear for a fraction of the cost and make a tidy profit. They will have forecast how much they can bleed the contract for and may even make small losses in some years to achieve their target income.

Before anyone jumps in to disagree, this happened to my wife in the private sector where her company sold off the "service" parts of their business to small independent operators who did exactly the above.

Control prices by using our votes? That's an interesting idea.

Let's see now, who wouldn't vote for free electricity, gas, water, petro, oil, houses, buses, trains, beer, food, etc?

No self-respecting communists that I know, I'm sure...!

When you've worked in both, it is very true and very prominent. Well said Chris.


Just to agree, Captain America has also hit the nail on the head incase anyone thought his post was wrong.