The Friends have obtained four documents under the Freedom of Information legislation relating to the assessment of the business plans submitted to Lambeth by Carnegie Community Trust and the democratic Carnegie Library Association respectively in support of their competing bids to take over the building. Below are links to these and a copy of the assessment published by Lambeth.  We are still battling to obtain a copy of the Trust's full business plan.

The documents obtained confirm that the Trust's plan is essentially to exclude the library, though a "limited number of books" would be available and it is envisaged that there will still be two-hour visits from librarians.  Instead of a library the Trust propose to have a cafe or cafe bar run entirely by volunteers and serving hot and cold meals as "the real social centre."

The obvious question is what is wrong with a library?  The answer  seems to be that it is "seen as white elitist - catchment area is multi-cultural; building does not offer anything for some communities."  This bigoted nonsense appears to be part of a wider problem with senior people at the council.  The local branch of the Labour Party is demanding action to counter "a growing problem of institutional racism in Lambeth Council" and UNISON has published some disturbing figures on its website: https://lambeth-unison.org/2018/04/30/lambeth-council-staff-restructure-institutional-racism-and-staff-cuts-but-those-on-over-50000-up-by-12/

As they would not want a purpose-built library, the Trust would want to "reshape the building."  After detailed inspections architects and building surveyors have advised Lambeth that the building will need substantial long-term maintenance work in 10 to 20 years time.  The democratic Association are content to raise the necessary funds and do this work in due course.  There is a possibility of 100% Lottery funding, as was provided to the councils which applied in the last round of Lottery funding for libraries.  The Trust propose to do the work quickly combining it with the reshaping at a total cost of about £5 million.  They hope to get 50% from the Lottery and Cllr James Chatterton Dickson informs us that Lambeth will pay the other 50%.

Overall the officers preferred the Trust to the Association for the Council's preferred bidder, ostensibly because the Trust's plans are supposedly "more ambitious."  So far as appears from the documents this ambition comprises the reshaping of the building, of which no details have been disclosed, and the replacement of the library by a cafe or cafe bar.

The following table summarises the plans of the democratic Association and the Trust.

Reports

Asset transfer published assessment
Asset transfer officer panel: CLA
Asset transfer report, CLA
Asset transfer officer panel: CCT
Asset transfer report, CCT

The Green Party recently put a written question to the Lambeth Cabinet Member responsible for Libraries, Sonia Winifred.  The Friends' experience of Sonia is that she does not lie.  She might tell us only part of the story but the part she tells is likely to be accurate.  The answer is therefore worth considering.

The answer informs us that there will be as much "community space" as before and that there will be a "library service" comprising library activities in the space from time-to-time. Previously Lambeth were using the term Neighbourhood Library to include token services which no reasonable person could call a library, such as the alcove containing 500 books in the Railway Tearoom in Streatham Vale.  It is good to see that Sonia appears to have ditched this grossly misleading term, with its connotations that there would be an adequate stock of books and some space set aside for a library.  For more than a year the Friends have been telling anyone who would listen that Lambeth have not committed themselves to providing a library only often to be told that we have got it wrong.  We can now hope that everyone who is interested will accept that they need to join in campaigning for a library.

A less welcome aspect of Sonia's answer is that it describes Waterloo Library as having "a full stock of books."  It has about 7,500.  A previous Head of Libraries advised that a local library needs a minimum of about 20,000 books to cater for all ages.  Experience at Carnegie Library seems to confirm this.  After years of much lower stock levels and lending, the stock at Carnegie Library was built up to 19,754 books shortly before Lambeth closed it in March 2016 and the rate at which books were lent was the fastest in the borough.

The Friends are most directly concerned with Carnegie Library but it would be foolish to think that its fate can be separated from the future of the borough's other libraries.  It may therefore at this point be worth emphasising that:

• Lambeth needs all ten of its existing libraries.  It should really have more to provide an adequate service throughout  the borough.
• Each library needs a good selection of books for all ages and a children's library in a separate room from the Adults' library.  The Adults' library needs to include a Teen zone and the teens will only use this if it is well away from the Children's library and situated so that the teens do not feel the staff or other grownups are looking at them.
• The libraries need to be open sufficient hours, including some time in the evenings and at weekends.
• Libraries also need to be fully staffed by professional librarians and trained library assistants.  An urban library is a particular kind of space and managing it to maintain a calm and welcoming character is a specialised skill.  Further skills are needed to assist learners, computer users and people seeking information.  Volunteers add greatly to the range of services on offer in Lambeth's libraries but they are only effective where there is a core of paid library staff.

The question and answer are available at https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=10515

Carnegie Community Trust have also recently put some information on their website.  They inform us that they will be taking an asset transfer from Lambeth during 2019 and imply that they will be taking charge of the ground floor and the first floor office space over the coming months.

The posting calls for local people "to help to make the Carnegie Community Hub a truly community owned venture, a place the whole community can call their own."  This is almost as misleading as "Neighbourhood Library."  The Trust purports to be for the benefit of the community, hence its name.  However, there is no reason whatsoever to expect it ever to be run by the local community. There is a range of opinions among libraries campaigners about how close the Trust is to Lambeth's inner circle of senior councillors.  Some of us consider it to be just Lambeth by another name, the Council exercising power without responsibility.  Others take the view that the Trust has a degree of independence.  In any event it is clear that it is a thoroughly undemocratic organisation.  Its constitution permits only its trustees to be voting members.  The initial trustees were appointed by themselves at the behest of the Council and have the power to appoint additional or replacement trustees.

The Trust prepared a three-year Business Plan.  It published brief extracts from this in January and other bits of information at other times.  Reading its recent posting in the light of these it seems reasonably clear that its main activity would be hiring out rooms in competition with local church halls.  Additionally, it hopes to run a cafe even though the only kitchen in the building has been stripped out and is being converted into toilets.  Also, they plan to hire out desk spaces.

The Trust is trying to recruit volunteers to do almost all of the work needed but how the Trust could make its activities financially viable is a mystery even if it succeeded in recruiting sufficient people to put in the necessary hours for free, which seems unlikely.  The Trust has obtained a grant to enable it to pay one employee for eight months and the trustees seem to think that they could generate income to continue to pay someone and to fund the other costs of the building.  However, even if it is staffed entirely by volunteers a cafe is unlikely to generate substantial profits and room hires look equally unpromising.  The main intended source of income therefore appears to be the proposed desk spaces.  But there is a great deal of competition.  This will no doubt intensify now Lambeth has arranged for International House, the office block adjoining Brixton Recreation Centre, to be used for desk space hiring.  There is room for dozens of desk spaces on each of its eleven floors.

There have previously been suggestions that the cafe would be a cafe bar serving alcohol into the late evening but this would need the grant of a licence over strong objections from the neighbours and so its feasibility looks doubtful.  Lambeth appears to have promised a grant of £40,000 a year in lieu of the basement gym paying rent or making any financial contribution in respect of the building but this would only continue so long as the gym remained.  As the gym has no prospect of financial success this would probably be only a matter of months.  Thereafter the Trust would have the basement to rent out but the rent for a windowless basement in Herne Hill would no doubt be modest.  The Friends obtained a professional rental valuation of £1.50 a square foot if and when a tenant could be found.  It does not look as though the Trust's finances would work out.

As some of our readers will be aware, two of the Trust's trustees have apparently fallen out with senior councillors despite many years of being fellow stalwarts of the right wing of the Labour Party in Lambeth.  The pair insist that the Trust could only have a hope of paying its way if the subsidy were £80,000 instead of £40,000 and guaranteed to continue for at least five years.

The posting refers to an Asset Transfer to the Trust possibly taking place in 2019.  It is not entirely clear what is meant.  The original plan was that Lambeth would relieve itself of any responsibility for the building by letting the whole of it rent-free to an organisation which, at least nominally, is separate from the Council.  This is what would normally be understood by "Asset Transfer."  However Lambeth now propose to retain responsibility for the building, letting the basement gym to Greenwich Leisure Limited and bearing all the losses of the gym.  This would leave only the ground floor and the first floor office for letting to the Trust. This arrangement would enable the Council and Greenwich Leisure to terminate the basement tenancy at any time by mutual agreement.  The Trust might be expecting the gym lease to end during 2019 and that it would then be given a lease of the whole building.  Alternatively, "Asset Transfer" might just mean that the lease to the Trust would contain provisions included in Asset Transfer leases which enable the Council to forfeit the lease and take back the property when the tenant's finances appear to be failing.

Ahead of Thursday's election, here are some facts about the situation for the Carnegie Library. Our latest bulletin Pages 4 and 1 and Pages 2 and 3.

A leaflet about the library and proposed events in Brockwell Park has been produced and distributed by some local residents and library supporters.

This was not produced by the Friends, and some of the information contained in the leaflet is incomplete.  Here are corrections:

We sent a summary of the arrangements for Carnegie Library to Cllr Sonia Winifred, who is Lambeth's Cabinet Member responsible for libraries, and copied in the senior Herne Hill councillor, Jim Dickson.  We asked her to come back to us if anything in it  needed correction.  A month has elapsed without any response and we therefore infer that the summary is accurate in all respects.  A copy is here.

Contrary to what Lambeth say:

• What they are doing to our library is not a money saving exercise.
• The planned gym will always need subsidising and it will never make a contribution to the cost of the library.

Although the reduction in library opening hours would save about £125,000 a year in staff costs, Lambeth appear to be providing about the same amount to their Carnegie Community Trust to run the main room as a Church hall type of facility instead of the previous flexible use as a library and hall.  So there would not be any saving overall.

The disclosed estimates of the capital costs of the building works total £3 million.  Final costs of Lambeth projects always seem to be a multiple of the original estimates.  We should therefore expect the final cost of the works to be at least £5 million.  Lambeth are currently borrowing at 4.7% per annum.  Assuming a generous 20 years for repayment the financing costs come out at £400,000 a year.  The basement is not deep enough for a gym and there are many cheaper gyms offering more facilities in locations more convenient for almost anyone who wants a gym.  It would be hopelessly unrealistic to expect the gym to attract enough custom to cover its running costs, let alone generate an additional £400,000 a year to cover the financing costs.

One view is that Councillors are just indulging themselves at the People's expense in the standard Lambeth nonsense of always having money for pet projects but not for services to the public.  For example, Lambeth are simultaneously:

• Spending about £100 million on "Your Nu Town Hall."
• Refusing to pay the water bill of £2,000 a year for the paddling pool in Ruskin Park.  They say that the Friends of Ruskin Park, whose volunteers already manage and clean the pool, must pay this in future.

However, there is a more sinister aspect to the current and proposed building work to the library in that all of it is more consistent with Lambeth's previously announced plan to sell the library for redevelopment than with providing a gym in the basement or restricting the use of the ground floor.  The details are here.

Lambeth's plans for our library are complicated and presented by them in ways which are confusing.  The Friends have therefore tried in the following summary to describe all the key features as clearly as possible.  For the sake of simplicity we have omitted the scandalous waste of money involved.

Lambeth plan to open a library in the building in February, then open a gym confined to the basement in June and finally open the main room as a sort of church hall at an unknown future date.  Neither the library nor the gym or the hall if it ever opened would be viable.

The library would have barely enough books and these would be in a cramped space.  There would not be a separate children's library, only a small area with furniture for children.  There would not be room for a Teen Zone or space for socialising or group activities.  The library would only be open for about two hours a day and it would be staffed by only one person, either a Library Assistant or a professional Librarian.  In a matter of months Lambeth would no doubt announce that the library is not attracting enough visits or lending sufficient numbers of books to justify the space and quantity of books devoted to it.

The gym would not have enough headroom for users to raise their hands above their heads or jump.  This disadvantage combined with competition from cheaper gyms with more facilities in locations more convenient for most potential users strongly suggests that it would never break even financially.

The hall after removing the bookcases and covering the glazed partitions would be an unattractive, echoey space with plain walls and the building would not have a kitchen.  The existing kitchen and the small meeting room next to it are currently being converted to toilets for users of the hall.

Even Lambeth's "community group" who would be expected to run the hall, Carnegie Community Trust, say that the plans are not feasible.  They object that Lambeth could terminate their payments to the Trust in respect of the spaces occupied by the library and gym at any time, which would force the Trust into insolvency.

Lambeth intend to open the library 11 weeks before the Council Elections after keeping the library closed for nearly two years.  They plan to have the library open for 40 hours a week or more until a few weeks after the Elections instead of the usual two hours a day.  It should be readily apparent that all this is blatant electioneering.

The Friends will continue the campaign for restoration of the library comprising properly staffed suitable spaces for library use and activities compatible with a library.

Lambeth are currently delivering a grossly misleading leaflet to homes in Herne Hill Ward.  Lambeth's current plans would not provide a viable library or a viable gym.  The library would not have sufficient space, staffing or hours to attract enough users to justify the cost of keeping it open once next year's Council Elections were out of the way.

Below are some of the specific things the leaflet says or clearly implies and the true situation in respect of each:

Readers with the time and patience to follow the Carnegie Library saga will be aware that councillors are discussing the future of the building and its grounds with a group comprising three of their fellow activists from the right of the Labour Party, Carnegie Community Trust.

Contrary to what they were saying previously, the Trust have now disclosed that they will accept the gym Lambeth have been proposing. This might be an indication that Lambeth are nearing a definite commitment to go ahead with the gym and that we should therefore be intensifying our campaign against it.

The basement excavation currently being carried out was decided on long before the gym proposal and it is not deep enough for activities which involve jumping or participants raising their hands above their heads. GLL, the company which would run the gym, say that they would need to have "Body Pump" and other vigorous group exercise classes on the ground floor. The Consulting Engineers appointed by Lambeth advise that, if there is to be gym use on the ground floor, the floor will need to be strengthened and damping inserted to contain vibration.

Over the past few years, the Friends have repeatedly asked Lambeth and the Trust's predecessors what steps would be taken to reduce vibration but no commitment to do anything in this respect has ever been made. When granting Planning Permission for the gym Lambeth's Planning Committee avoided making a decision on the uses of the ground floor by delegating this for future decision by a Council officer.

Although there would be a library service of some kind on the ground floor, we appear to be heading towards a situation where this would be disrupted by bouncing of the floor whenever a gym class was in progress. There would also be a risk of damage to the building, especially the internal glazing, and eventually of the floor collapsing. We must put a stop to this nonsense.