NEWS FEATURE
Campaign coordination in Hampshire library fight
HAMPSHIRE County Council’s pro- posals to shut down 10 libraries – plus four community libraries – hit the headlines in January with a letter from well-known authors criticising the plans. The letter was from a campaign group called Hampshire Authors for Libraries and was delivered to the Conservative council’s executive member for recre- ation and heritage, Sean Woodward. It was just one of a number of campaigns emerging across the county. Six have been launched, with four of them having online petitions that seek support for their indi- vidual causes (Chineham, South Ham, Kingsclere and North Baddesley). Chineham Library is the only ‘tier 2’ library on the list of potential closures with a catchment area population of around 60,000. Through contacts made via the Friends of Chineham Facebook page, it has acted as a hub for some cam- paigners seeking to coordinate and is now working with South Ham (which has a 50,000 catchment population); Odiham (a 7,500 catchment population); and Kings- clere, a community library (that serves a 5,300 catchment population). Together they form the broader Friends of Hampshire Libraries campaign. This is currently just a Facebook page – but they have a shared agenda which includes handing over a petition to Sean Wood- ward near the end of the consultation period and arranging a meeting with the Basingstoke MP Maria Miller, a former Secretary of State for Culture (although Kingsclere is seeking to do the same with its local MP, Kit Malthouse). Emily, a spokesperson for Friends of Chineham and for Friends of Hampshire Libraries, said they were still trying to link up with other campaigns. “So far, we have us at Chineham, Odiham, South Ham and Kingsclere and we are trying to link up with North Baddesly. We have established a closed Facebook group for the leaders of any friends’ campaigns, which can be found here: https://www.face-
book.com/groups/friendsofhampshirelibraries/ please do direct anyone who can help us or wants to link up here.”
While seeking support, Friends of Chineham Library is also researching the possibility of technical or legal chal-
March 2020
lenges to Hampshire’s consultation. Emily said they were looking into the proposals and at precedents from other campaigns. “We would welcome advice from other organisations” she said, adding “We are willing to seek a judicial review if HCC decide to close libraries.” Kingsclere Community Library is one of four Community Libraries set to lose council funding and access to the LMS, computers and wifi.
Sarah Davis, a member of the library’s management committee, said support was being raised via the parish magazine and schools. She said that strong Parish Coun- cil support appeared to be filtering up to County Council level with examples like Bradford (see page 11) being mentioned. Supporting the county-wide coordination she said: “It is very helpful to be able to share ideas with other libraries undergoing the same experience and we can encourage each other.” Essex campaigners have been in touch to
offer ideas and support. Andrew Coburn, a campaigner involved in SOLE – Save our Libraries Essex – is a CILIP member, Library Campaign Treasurer, former Essex library services employee and longstand- ing UNISON officer. He and other SOLE activists have been in touch with different Hampshire campaigns. “We’ve discussed some of the aspects of our campaign and how we did it” Andrew said, adding that there were a number of differences between Essex and Hampshire library services themselves, as well between the propos-
als from their respective councils, all of which would make the campaigns dif- ferent.
Another difference is momentum. He
said that individual campaigns sprung up quickly around Essex. While this caused some issues around things like multiple petitions – it also powered campaigners to join forces. Celebrity and author involvement is also likely to play a big part in cam- paigns, particularly on social media. In Essex local and national authors and celebrities were approached by SOLE or the local campaigns.
Hampshire Authors for Libraries now
has about 80 authors, all based in or originally from the county. They were involved in the countywide campaign from the beginning as one group and they are now supporting the individual library campaigns. However, while there are differences,
there are common solutions on offer. One that worked in Essex was marches which could help mobilise and grow support. Andrew said that an important aspect of marches is that people phys- ically meet each other, put names to faces and discuss ideas. “It’s a good idea to get someone to say a few words at the end – it means people who want to get involved have someone to get in touch with.” He adds: “You need to get up a head of steam in every library affected and to bring in as many as possible to put pressure on the council.”
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