At 11pm on Monday December 21st the public consultation on Lambeth Council’s proposals for the future of the libraries at Tate South Lambeth and Durning came to an end.
(These proposals were that extra money be spent on Durning to make it the single library for the whole of north Lambeth while Council funding for Tate South Lambeth would be cut off as of next April and the library be converted into a gym with a bookshelf, some machines and no library staff.)
The Council is now examining three sets of responses:
- Surveys dropped off at the two libraries
- Online returns
- 400 street interviews (200 each) in the immediate neighbourhood of the two libraries
In the words of the consultation document the Council will “consider the feedback” from the consultation and the “cabinet member for Neighbourhoods (Councillor Jane Edbrooke) “will make a final decision”.
We have some questions about the handling of the response
Friends of TSL have written to Council officers with a set of questions on how the consultation responses will be handled and conclusions drawn.
We have asked:
What are the rules on disqualifying any responses?
Who will apply these rules?
How many responses were disqualified?
How many online responses were accepted?
How many paper responses were accepted (by library)?
What was the number and breakdown of votes for questions 1 and 2?
What were the results of the 400 street interviews?
When and how will the Council publish the results?
Does the “feedback” considered by the Council consist of numbers only, or numbers plus written-in comments?
When and on what grounds will Councillor Jane Edbrooke make the “final decision”?
All these are important questions – we await clarification.
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