Campaigners fight to save Woodston Library

Watch Campaigners fight to save Woodston Library - Peterborough Telegraph on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00What do you say about the importance of keeping libraries and cities open?

00:15I think it's essential because Wollaston's quite a populated community, it's ever-growing

00:20and we know that there are literacy challenges in Peterborough and we know from looking at

00:25schools that they think it's really valueless and keeping kids reading, getting them reading

00:30more so their literacy improves and they feel better online and at school.

00:34But also it's such a lovely community hub, to lose it we could lose that venue where

00:40people get together, people meet, people feel part of the community.

00:45How far have you got so far with trying to change the council's mind about this decision?

00:49We have had a number of meetings initially with them where we had quite a number of conversations

00:54and they gave us their reasons why they felt this building could be sold off because it

01:00wasn't being well used but with conversations with them we came up with some ideas where

01:04we felt the community would use it more, making it easier to access, improving the opening

01:09hours, publicising it more, making it clearer how to get in and out and also making it available

01:14every day.

01:15Self-service is very confusing at the moment, not being available every day.

01:20So we came up with a list of actions we thought would actually help improve the usage of the

01:25library and show how valuable it is.

01:27But unfortunately they've been unwilling to implement any of them so far.

01:31Well it seems strange to me that you've got a case of, there's people that want to use

01:34the library but because it's open, is it open three days a week or four days a week?

01:38It's staffed three days a week, half a day and then the rest of the day is self-service

01:42but there are four days a week where it's a week a day.

01:45It just seems like, how are you meant to judge how many people actually want to use the library

01:50when there's so many days people could come and use the library but they can't?

01:53People have tried to access it on a day when it's not available and not understood why

01:56they couldn't get in and have given out of it.

01:58So it's a guide to go down the same model they have in Dogstalk Library where it's open

02:01Monday to Sunday with self-service with a number of staffed hours in between so people know

02:05they can come in every day.

02:06And the community have said they would actually use it a lot more.

02:09Groups would be able to come in, people would be able to come in after school, their children

02:13would be able to come in and change their clothes.

02:15At the moment it's actually one hour and 30 minutes.

02:17So we know it would make a big difference and we'd really, really like it to be given a go.

02:20We've seen a really good turnout today just for this meeting haven't we?

02:23So it does show how much support there is for it and how well it could be used.