Brixton library Pic: Google

Just one week after World Book Day, a public meeting will be held on March 11 at Brixton Library to discuss planned library closures in Lambeth.

Local novelist Alex Wheatle will be among speakers at the meeting, which was set up in opposition to the council’s proposed cuts. He will ask what the community can do to secure the future of libraries in the area.

The closures are part of Lambeth Council’s plan for changes to cultural services over the next five years, a scheme called Culture2020. According to its website, £90 million must be saved by 2018, and the changes in cultural services have been suggested as a way to achieve this.

The proposal states that the borough’s statutory service will be reduced from 10 to five town centre libraries. Waterloo and Minet libraries would be sold for a total of £10 million, which the council says would be used as an “endowment fund” to help maintain the remaining libraries.

The plans also include stopping funding for Carnegie, Durning and Upper Norwood libraries by 2016.

Lambeth Save our Services (lambethsaveourservices.org) and the Brixton Buzz (www.brixtonbuzz.com) both have information about the meeting, along with other updates and full details of events surrounding the campaign to preserve the libraries.

Despite considerable public opposition, the council’s plans have not changed. A council spokesman said: “The Culture2020 consultation, which includes the proposals for the libraries, is still ongoing.  We wouldn’t make any changes…until the consultation has finished and responses have been analysed.”

To mark World Book Day, Brixton library gave book tokens to children, which they can exchange for specially written books by top authors, according to Anna Tomlinson, one of the librarians there. This is one of the services which could be lost to some residents if the closures go ahead.