Great news. Following our stall on Mill Hill Broadway today, we now have over 500 names on the petition to save Barnets Librarys from Tory Councillor Robert Rams plans to close them as part of the Future Shape / One Barnet project. Having been in Mill Hill for two consecutive weeks, we are now planning to move to different locations next week. We have had enough offers of support to run stalls in four town centres, which we will do if we can organise the logistics.
If you do not want Barnet Council to shut libraries, there are three ways in which you can help.
1) Sign the on line petition at - http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39319/signatures.html - Please forward this link to any friends or family you have who may also wish to sign. The campaign has only been running for 8 days, so to get 500 signatures so far is just a start. Most of these so far are on paper, but far more people have access to the on line petition, if they know about it.
2) Help us collect signatures. If you email me BY CLICKING HERE, I will email you back a word document so you can print a paper copy of the petition. You can then get all of your friends, family and neighbours to sign it. It doesn't matter if you only get a couple of signatures (although our experience shows that nearly everyone wants to sign up). If everyone who read this blog signed it, then it would be the London Borough of Barnets largest ever petition.
3) Email your local councillor and tell them that if the Conservative administration close the Libraries they will be out of power for a generation in Barnet. This link gives you the details of your local councillor -
http://committeepapers.barnet.gov.uk/democracy/council/listcouncillorname.asp?intSubSectionID=13&intSectionID=9
If enough people email them, they will sit up and listen.
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The Council is currently undertaking a review of the Library service. Councillor Rams has publicly stated that using a Library is a "lifestyle choice". He has stated that people "could order books online and collect them from Tescos" and that "people can read books in Starbucks".
If enough people let him know that they disagree with his crazy ideas, then the policy will be dropped. If you tell your councillors that you are fundamentally opposed to Robert Rams and his crazy ideas, then he will be forced to climb down. I must tell you that one of the Mill Hill Conservative Councillors told me today that he was privately opposed to the closures, but he refused to sign the petition. Once enough people tell them, they will back down.
It will cost you no more than five minutes of your time to sign the petition, email it to your friends and email your local councillor. I can't believe that there is anyone who reads this blog who can't spare that.
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