Disappointment at Central Library decision

Following planning permission granted for Cathedral Primary School to move into the two ground floors of Bristol Central Library, two members of the Love Bristol Libraries pressure group write of their sadness and how this could be a dangerous precedent across the rest of the city.

We have seen with sadness and disappointment that a Bristol Council Development Control Committee meeting voted seven to three (with one abstention) to stop two floors of the Bristol Central Library being used as library space. Cathedral Primary School has finally achieved its ambition of installing children’s classrooms into subterranean library basements.

Public libraries form a unique part of the education landscape of Bristol, supporting a diverse range of users, indiscriminate of race, creed, age, income or background. The Central Library plays a pivotal role in that network, and has been designed, built, stocked and run precisely to fulfil that role.

This would be distressing at any time – we have advocated the folly of such a short-sighted act from the beginning – but that it should come now in the middle of a public consultation on libraries is grossly ill-timed.

When approval was first given by George Ferguson for the application to proceed to planning, there was no hint of any city-wide review of library services. When members of the public participated – in good faith – in surveys about the range of services available from the library, we didn’t know for certain these parts of the Central Library would be lost and resources removed before the consultation completed.

Fragmenting the Central Library’s service offer affects the whole network. We must also think of the threat posed to Clifton, Cotham and Redland communities, which could end up losing their library spaces altogether. If closed, greater community use might have been made of those Central Library floors. Sadly, that will no longer be an option open to suggestion.

Thank you to all the people of Bristol and beyond who sought to defend the library space now lost – perhaps the first loss of much more in the next 13 months – and we shall be closely monitoring the fallout to the Library Service and the people of Bristol.

In particular, we will demand that the council administration ensures every penny of the school’s rent is spent solely and exclusively on our libraries, and for those library projects which formed part of the ‘pitch’ made by Cathedral Primary School.

The steady strangling of Bristol’s library budget over recent years – which allowed projects like the reference library catalogue digitisation to be held up as incentives for losing space – should never have been allowed to happen. Head of libraries Kate Murray herself said this money was the only way she could get this long-outstanding work completed.

This has been a sad day for the libraries of Bristol. However, this makes us, enthusiastic library users and supporters, all the more determined to see that no more carving-up of library space, staff or services takes place.

If Bristol Council has proved anything, it is that it can find funding to invest, build and support services if the political will is there to do so. It is growth that is now needed to ensure that Bristol Libraries have a future this city can be proud of.

By C Warren & J Richardson, on behalf of Love Bristol Libraries

Read about what Cathedral Primary School have planned for their new home.