Petition details

Enfield Over 50s Forum petition to Keep Enfield’s libraries open

We the undersigned petition the Council to 1. Reject the proposal to reduce the number of libraries by closing Bullsmoor, Enfield Highway, Enfield Island Village, Bowes Road, Southgate, Winchmore Hill, Oakwood and John Jackson 2. Use the post consultation period to properly examine the impact of the proposed closures on older people, the young, those with disabilities, those who are learning English, those who need and provide care, those excluded digitally and those who are lonely and isolated, those who need protection from the cold in winter and the heat in summer. 3. Develop instead a plan to realise the full potential of a network of inclusive community libraries to protect, serve and strengthen Enfield’s neighbourhoods and communities.

This petition is submitted by Enfield Over 50s Forum on behalf of older people, but we also speak for the young, those with disabilities, mums, dads and carers and all those for whom libraries are an essential community lifeline. We consider that the proposal to close eight local libraries is discriminatory in respect of these protected groups because it will have a disproportionately negative effect on them.
We reject the proposition in Enfield Council’s internal Equalities Impact Assessment (EqIA) that ‘savings estimated at £5.3 million’ in future upkeep, and ‘capital receipts of between £2.43 million and £3.25 million’ for the buildings, remotely compensate for the loss of a service which
• Plays a vital role in pre-school socialisation in laying foundations for school and reading readiness and providing immunisation
• Provides facilities for older children who cannot easily study at home where there may be neither space nor computer access
• Provides safe places for readers, those seeking information or help with digital access, bureaucracy and form filling and, sadly, for keeping warm in Winter and (increasingly) cool in Summer
• Provides, literally, a lifeline to those vulnerable older people threatened with both hypothermia and hyperthermia as well as malnutrition as recent admissions to North Middlesex hospital revealed
• Provides library access for significant numbers of vulnerable residents about whom Enfield’s EqIA concludes
o ‘People with learning disabilities and people who are neuro-diverse or have dementia may be disproportionately impacted by the proposed closure of the 8 libraries if they rely on these libraries as a safe, familiar place in which they feel comfortable’.
o ‘Carers may also be disproportionately impacted if they rely on their time at this library as a form of respite’.
o ‘If the 8 libraries were to close this may disproportionately impact disabled people and their carers who use this library for respite and social interaction, as they will lose this social experience and could feel isolated’,
o ‘Some disabled people may find it difficult to travel to alternative libraries if they are required to walk, travel longer distances or take a journey that requires them to change bus or train to get to a library’
o ‘that the closure of some physical libraries may have a negative impact on some disabled library users, who may need assistance accessing the digital library service or are digitally excluded’.
In reality, the proposals mean that for significant numbers of less mobile, vulnerable and excluded residents there will be no library access. Books aside, libraries are effectively social hubs and vital links in chains of communication and community coherence. The map of Enfield reveals that areas of deprivation in the borough will be left without a library or easy access to one.
We find the 11 times repeated EqIA conclusion that ‘the proposal to close the 8 libraries will have a negative impact on all users of these libraries, regardless of their (variously) age, disability, gender identity, marital status, pregnant or recently had a baby, ethnicity, religions or beliefs, sex, sexual orientation’, care experience, socio-economic status’, reduces the assessment of impact on protected groups to a facile, box ticking exercise that fails to acknowledge the reality for seriously impacted groups.
Hence Enfield Over 50s Forum emphatically rejects the EqIA conclusion that this ‘negative impact is justified by the need to improve and enhance the library service at the retained 8 libraries, and the need to deliver the library service in a more efficient manner’.
We need forward- looking solutions capable of transforming our assets not simply selling them off. The Forum calls for a withdrawal of the present proposals and a radical and creative re-consideration dedicated to the future of our children and grandchildren and to respect and consideration for older residents.

This Petition ran from 12/09/2024 to 14/11/2024 and has now finished.

230 people signed this Petition.