Library closures: Have your say
Library closures: Have your say
Plus: A friend of Dorothy is spotted in Brum
Good morning Patchers — welcome to your Friday briefing.
Today we lead on a development in The Crooked House pub saga, in which an inquiry to decide the fate of the much missed watering hold has been set. More tram lines are set to be laid in the city centre as part of long-running expansion plans with bus diversions kicking in from Sunday, and a new piece of street art in the Gay Village has everyone talking.
In more serious news, the council’s highly controversial library closure proposals are out for public consultation — there’s a link to the survey below. Plus, Benjamin Zephaniah’s wife Qian has made a touching public statement and I Choose Birmingham has published a captivating slice of Brum history in pictures.
Finally, we hope you have a great weekend and look forward to bringing you your usual bumper briefing on Monday to start the week off well. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend read and if you haven’t yet, do consider becoming a paying member of The Dispatch to have access to all of our quality journalism. You’ll be in good company — there are now 584 lovely paying readers.
Brum in brief
🏗️More from Britain’s wonkiest pub: A date has been set for the appeal against the enforcement order to rebuild The Crooked House pub which was demolished following a suspected arson attack last year. The owners were served the order by South Staffordshire Council in February but an inquiry into the future of the pub will begin on July 23.
🚌Bus diversion details: From Sunday April 7 until the autumn, some bus routes through Birmingham City Centre will be diverted while new tram tracks are laid on Moor Street Queensway. The works are part of the much delayed Birmingham Eastside metro extension, which have been underway since 2020. Breathe a sigh of relief if you are a regular user of the existing tram — your journey won’t be affected. But for the changes to the buses, check this page to make sure you aren’t caught stranded.
🩰Friend of Dorothy: Sidewalk in the Gay Village has been adorned with a piece of street art thought to be a tribute to the LGBT community. The stencil features Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz reaching towards a pair of real ruby red slippers hung on a nearby telephone cable. Rumours were swirling that it could be a Banksy but, alas, a spokesperson for the elusive artist has confirmed it is not.
📖Have your say: A public consultation into the proposed library cuts across the city has been opened. To reduce costs, Birmingham City Council is considering axeing ten of its 35 community libraries and introducing a network of hubs. The proposals would see the service run by a mixture of council staff and community groups. To see the full plans and give your opinion, click here.
🗣️Poet’s corner: Qian Zephaniah, wife of the late Benjamin Zephaniah has shared a message of thanks on Twitter/X for all of the support she has received since he passed away in December. The moving statement also revealed that she herself was seriously ill last year. “Benjamin stood beside me and helped me fight my illness. I stood beside him to fight his,” she wrote. The post also revealed that there are future plans to honour the poet’s memory in the pipeline, so watch this space for more info.
📷Photo feature: The latest edition of I Choose Birmingham is out now, featuring cultural updates plus some fascinating historical photos of Birmingham landmarks courtesy of Mark Norton. His father Dennis, who was born in Birmingham in 1930, left behind several hundred photos from the 1950s and 60s. Our favourite is the shot of the Ringway Centre during construction — but all of them are worth a look.
Is there a place for a building filled with books in the age of electronic and social media? If they were just that, there's a case for saying no. But they are far more and could be more still. There remain, on the one hand, many original documents which are simply not found online or not readily. Public libraries can be the best way of keeping these for future generations. Then there is the joy of sharing stories and reading, which retain an importance face to face that the virtual world cannot give. Public libraries can do that. They can be centres for local communities - and there I think their value is greatest. But that takes investment, in people. Which takes money. The City is broke. Cuts have to come. But a note of caution: are we really so blind, and so arrogant, to think that the hand-held screens and the massive corporations behind them are so infallible, and so irreplaceable? Libraries should be more than about books. They could be about connecting people.
Disappointed at the limited and erroneous coverage of the consultation process for Birmingham Libraries. The plan is to *close* 25 libraries (not 10).
I know it’s a consultation, but everything points towards this option as already previously announced.
The remainder – one per constituency, a rationale that can only be driven by some perverse political logic rather than community need – will become “hubs” with information and advice services, access to computers and the Internet, a meeting place. Now, that, by any other name, would of course be a library, if only it were properly funded and managed.
Of course, Birmingham’s once outstanding library service has been run down for some years so that it may look less than it should be. There’s a piece of decent investigative journalism there if you want to pick it up at the Dispatch.
Some Dispatch readers may be of the view that libraries are no longer needed. Like all vital services they’re most needed by the most needy and by those who need them intermittently.
Libraries are already meeting places for all, study places for students and kids with no space at home or in lodgings, people who need the internet and a free computer, and help with both, access to thousands of free online leisure magazines, journals and research material. Advice sessions by specialists. Author events and book festivals. Reading clubs and homework clubs. The old standbys of local history, genealogy (free use of Ancestry.com); where do all those lovely old photos of Brum come from? On and on…
Millions of children in the UK don’t own a book (12.4% of kids on free school meals); yet reading for fun is essential for lifelong academic, economic and social success. Print literacy is a prerequisite for digital literacy. Access to IT networks and content is a prerequisite for this and everything else too.
Libraries are already the network of hubs that Birmingham needs. Community space, workspace, information centre, resources, expertise. However, currently under-managed, under-staffed and under-resourced in every way imaginable, they have been prepared for a consultation process that predetermines they are ready for closure.
Now, if you look at Manchester Libraries......