Save our Libraries – Sign the Petition

Bury Council’s Cabinet at its meeting on  Wednesday 25 January 2017 agreed to consult on proposals to close up to 11 of our 14 libraries.

The Council has been consulting on library service for a number of months, though for everyone involved in the consultation (which never mentioned closures) these plans will come as a huge surprise.

The options to be sent to public consultation are:

    • Option 1 – Close 11 Libraries, keeping Bury (with Archives), Prestwich and Ramsbottom.
    • Option 2 – Close 10 Libraries, keeping Bury (with Archives), Prestwich, Ramsbottom and Radcliffe.

Please sign our petition to save our precious libraries.

Bury currently has 14 library buildings in total, 7 original “township” libraries and 7 smaller, part-time, “community libraries” which were added to the town between 1999 and 2014 to meet reasons of social inclusion and to support smaller communities.

Across Bury there are currently 54,632 registered users of Libraries:
Bury – 18,458
Prestwich – 10,897
Radcliffe – 7,449
Ramsbottom – 4,695
Tottington – 2,720
Unsworth, 3,612
Whitefield, 3,758
Other library or service, 3,043

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The Libraries which would be closed under both options proposed for consultation would be:
Ainsworth Library, Brandlesholme Library, Castle Leisure Centre Library, Coronation Road Library. Dumers Lane Library, Moorside Library, Topping Fold Library, Tottington Library, Unsworth Library, Whitefield Library.

The current library service costs the council £2.4 million per year. Most people will be aware that local councils are being forced to make significant savings by Government, but ultimately all Councils have choices to make.

We have two specific concerns:
– leaving whole areas without libraries will ultimately only hurt the most vulnerable in our community, those who are least able to travel, and those who are most lonely.
– insufficient attempts have been made to find alternative ways of providing libraries – e.g. volunteer, community or charity run libraries, which would enable a wider service to be maintained whilst still saving money.

Please sign our petition to send a strong message to the Council that we need to save our local libraries.

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Bury and Prestwich Walk-In Centres to Close

Bury’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) met on Wednesday 18 January 2017 to consider the outcome of its own ‘consultation’ on the future of our two Walk-In Centres, in Bury and Prestwich.

The result of the public engagement undertaken included over 1,000 survey completed by residents and showed:
90% thought that the Walk-In Centres serve a purpose not otherwise provided in Bury.
83.5% disagree or strongly disagree with a decision to not renew the Walk-In Centres.

The CCG recognised that the largest number of objections and concerns were regarding the Prestwich Walk-In Centre, rather than the Moorgate Centre. Only one petition was received by the CCG objecting to the closures, which had been organised by the local Lib Dems in Prestwich.

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Our view, given in a statement by Group Leader Councillor Tim Pickstone on Wednesday stated: “Everyone knows there is a crisis in NHS emergency care and that our local A&E departments cannot cope with existing volumes. Everyone who I speak to tells me how difficult it is to get GP appointment.”

“By going ahead with the closure of the Prestwich and Bury Walk-In Centres, Bury CCG are not only ignoring the clearly stated views of local people in their own consultation, but they’re also ignoring common sense. With this decision we’re not just losing two much loved and well used local services, we’re making our local A&Es worse.”

You can read the full report of the CCG here.