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A word on libraries, if I may

I was really lucky growing up because we had loads of books at home. But books are like hugs, lie-ins and the sun (that rare yellow object in the sky, not the newspaper) - you always want more.

My local authority, Harrow Council, is consulting on the closure of four libraries. One of those on the shortlist is Rayners Lane, the library of my childhood, where I attended storytime sessions before I could walk and sought solace to study for my GCSEs. The tales of our public libraries are intertwined with our own, aren't they? Anyway, I want to share some views here which would be difficult to express through a multiple choice questionnaire.

Closing, or indeed cutting, something is almost always a consequence of failing to reimagine it. By shutting a service a council is rarely suggesting it is no longer needed, just that it has not been adapted to meet new and changing needs - usually for a complex combination of reasons. We should be braver in rethinking our libraries before shelving them.

The frontline of local government is retreating. In Rayners Lane the library is the only public building, apart from a school. Of course a council is not the same thing as a community, but every community needs a sense of agency around what is public - councils should be guardians of all that is held in the common good.

During times of strife for our high streets libraries are a draw, and they could be an even bigger draw. This point has been well made by a group of residents and traders campaigning in North Harrow (the library there is also threatened with closure). High streets should be a coming together of commercial and community life, we need space for both to flourish.

The council written script for Harrow's libraries cries out for an alternative storyline. One which starts with the premise that libraries symbolise something beyond just the rational: ideas and emotions as well as buildings. Let us not be accused by future generations of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Not the end.




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