There are many things I expected to see in the Library review. The one thing which I didn't was this. To me this is truly shocking. This tells me that in areas like Mill Hill and Hendon, the infrastructure will not cope. Schools are already chronically oversubscribed, roads are jammed at busy times and the nearest hospitals to the most populous wards are miles away.
What you then notice is how much better served for libraries the richer, less populous parts of the Borough are :-
Ok, so you get the picture. Then we get the truly shocking map. How deprivation in Barnet maps onto the distribution of the Libraries.
There are six dark red bits (where deprivation is at it's worst). Only one of these has a library - Grahame Park. This library is designated for closure, with the possibilty of a new library mooted. Surely we need to get libraries and educational services to these areas if we are ever to have any hope of breaking the cycle of poverty. Does this shock you? It certainly shocks me.
What you then notice is how much better served for libraries the richer, less populous parts of the Borough are :-
There are six dark red bits (where deprivation is at it's worst). Only one of these has a library - Grahame Park. This library is designated for closure, with the possibilty of a new library mooted. Surely we need to get libraries and educational services to these areas if we are ever to have any hope of breaking the cycle of poverty. Does this shock you? It certainly shocks me.
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