A key meeting was held last night (Monday 25 September) about the proposed closure of Pevensey Bay library.
Held in the debating chamber of the Priory Court Hotel, what we witnessed may have laid a foundation stone for a library fit for the 21st century in Pevensey Bay.
The meeting may turn out to be a seminal moment in the history of the community.
Are we about to see Pevensey Bay Library establsihed as a community venture to make us all proud?
Before the meeting at 6:00pm, MP Huw Merriman, who set up and chaired the meeting, talked to the library services at the highest level in East Sussex County Council. He also briefed the panel who were to speak about the way in which he intended to host the public gathering to give local people the opportunity to speak.
At 7:00pm sharp, thanks to the good offices of owner of the Priory Court Hotel, Peter Lowton, who provided the debating chamber free of charge to the community, the meeting began.
With a brief outline, Huw Merriman relayed his conversation with the library services, which included some edited figures about the running costs of the local library.
The figures had moved from what the county council gave in the extensive 500 page (600 if you include the eight appendices) review that proposed the closure of 7 libraries in the county, including Pevensey Bay Library.
The running cost figure (including management fees) had jumped from £18,500 to over £35,000 for Pevensey Bay Library.
The debating chamber, by the time that he began to speak, was full to capacity with standing room only.
Outlining his approach, which was to listen to what local people had to say, he gave a brief overview of the challenges faced by the community and the timescales until a proposed closure (April 2018) and then passed to the first speaker, Daniel Brookbank, Chairman of Pevensey Parish Council.
Daniel, making clear that he was speaking in a personal capacity, gave a superb overview of the challenge the community faced from the perspective of the Parish Council, explaining that there would be not one but two meetings about the proposed closure in quick succession, to come from the council.
He gave the view that he disagreed with the closure of the library and that he would be surprised if any of his fellow councillors would be “of anything other that the same view” about the planned closure.
As he spoke, with moderation and measure, there was no disguising both the passion he felt over the closure, and his grasp of an overview of the challenge from the point of view of the parish council, which included some initial thoughts about the costs that could be involved with a community venture of some description.
It was clear that what was on display was a show of commitment to a potential campaign to save Pevensey Bay Library from Daniel Brookbank and quite possibly Pevensey Parish Council, which under his leadership has become pro-actve.
With regard to the Localism Act of 2011, which had already been mentioned by Huw Merriman talking about ‘localism’, a way in which precious assets can be released to local communities, it was clear that some preparatory work was underway. Of course precious assets includes local libraries.
The question began to move to how this could be done.
As Daniel finished what he had to say, he sat down to well earned fulsome praise in the form of applause right across the room.
New Conservative County Councillor Tom Liddiard spoke next.
He too spoke in unequivocal fashion about his principled opposition to the closure.
Huw Merriman had begun the meeting by talking about his own library in Heathfield and ‘the value’ that he saw for his children
It was becoming clear that what we are about to see in the form of leaflets from the local Conservative Party is both personal and public pledges from the local MP, County councillor and district councillors.
They are all opposed to the closure. This kind of voice in unsion will have value to any potential campaign to oppose closure of Pevensey Bay Library.
District Councillor Lin Clark spoke from the panel to give her commitment to the campaign. She offered the view that ‘everyone in the room should get ten people to write a letter’ as part of the consultation.
District Councillor Dianne Dear (who is also the publisher of Bay Life) made clear that she was prepared to lobby Wealden Council over the closure.
Whilst it is the county council that is being forced to make the closure, nonetheless it is clear that the District Council, post the Localism Act 2011, also has a potential part to play in any contributions that could be made to a community venture library.
At least one person pointed to the irony of the fact that it is a Conservative Government that is making the cuts, necessitating the proposed closure.
However, given the strength of opinion being expressed from all sides of the argument, it was clear that the proposed closure had cut very deep into the fabric of the community psyche.
This feeling is shared amongst all parties and from all walks of life in and around Pevensey Bay
MPs are elected to work on behalf of their constituents. In the case of this meeting and in so many other cases, that is exactly what Huw Merriman was seen to be doing at the meeting and he did it well.
In some ways, irrespective of party, Huw Merriman is a textbook example of what a local MP can and should be like in relation to contact and communication with their constituents.
It was no surprise to see in the Great Corbyn General Election of 2017 that we saw places like Canterbury go to the Labour Party. Here in the Bexhill and Battle Constituency, Conservative Huw Merriman increased his majority.
At the meeting he utilised the Corbynesque sounding rallying cry over the campaign to save Pevensey Bay Library, He said, “if we can build that team we can build the momentum”.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd is not looking too safe in Hastings with her majority of 346. If another General Election is called tomorrow and we see a collapse of the Theresa May minority government and the Conservative Party partly swept from power in other constitencies in Sussex, he might still be our MP.
At a hustings held in the Priory Court Hotel in Pevensey, Huw Merriman might become the last Conservative man standing, but no doubt he would give an honest account of himself.
If he helps to save Pevensey Bay library, the safe money might even be on him increasing his majority in this corner of the constituency again.
Perhaps in many local meetings of this description he won extra votes from people of all persuasions in the General Election June 2017, by putting himself on the line and campaigning alongside local people.
As the discussion was opened to the floor, a quality, depth and range of thought, for the most part, was on display.
People with direct involvement as volunteers in the library service in various ways spoke, and the absurdity of the supposed small 11 minute drive to Hampden Park from Pevensey Bay, explained in the East Sussex County Council report, was curtly demolished.
Like much in the report, when the fine detail is considered, some of the analysis of library usage, distances to travel to reach libraries, that would still open for example, simply did not stack up.
The message about the scale of the shock and what this would mean was explored from the point of view of a volunteer offering a specialist reading service.
She explained, given the logistics of the challenge, that she would simply have to ‘give up offering her services’.
Parents spoke about what the loss would mean for their children, a lady from Normans Bay spoke about what the loss would mean for her, regular users of the service spoke questioning the numbers of people given by East Sussex County Council utilising the service in Pevensey Bay.
Given the circumstances, Huw Merriman, the panel and the audience were clearly in no doubt about the scale of the loss that the library closure would mean or the scale of the challenge in founding a campaign against the closure.
The meeting turned to what what Huw Merriman described as ‘Plan B’, which was to discuss the possibility of the community taking control of the library in some way.
The floor was given to Margaret Martin, who had been instrumental in the 17 month campaign to see the library returned to service following the flood in January 2015.
She spoke with authority, confidence, clarity, with a great deal of understanding of the context of library closures in the country and understanding in detail of the East Susses County Council closure proposals position and of course Pevensey Bay Library.
Huw Merriman, quite rightly, had explained that ‘East Sussex County Council was open to suggestions by the community to take over libraries’.
He is correct in this view. The appendices, as is often the case with reviews of this size and description, hides in plain sight, the truth.
Perhaps East Sussex Council going to close Pevensey Bay library whatever people say, the consultation is just a breathing space for people to absorb and take in the news.
In that sense, it could be argued, the consultation over the closure is not genuine.
Whilst this point was not made in the meeting, there may well have been an underlying feeling in the audience and amongst the speakers that this was the case.
The appendices to the report, on the other hand, are fascinating.
That is not to suggest that East Sussex County Council is handing Pevensey Bay Library on a plate to the community, but the indicators are there that East Sussex County Council would offer demonstrable support in relation to such a handover.
In appendix 6 is not just a description of how the communities could take over libraries, but a brief breakdown of how these legal entities could work.
The most interesting of these possibilities is what the Council calls the PSM (public service model).
When Margaret Martin began to speak, not only did she have the full attention of the entire audience, Huw Merriman turned sideways to listen to what she had to say and the detail.
Beginning with an appraisal of the arguments, the scope, range, depth of understanding not just of the local circumstances but the national context of libraries and library closures, was on view.
With the reasons to maintain libraries, she urged caution about the ‘poverty approach’ and the view of libraries as ‘soup kitchens for books’, quoting useful information from national sources.
She gave a visionary contribution to the public meeting, emphasising, whilst giving credit to the traditional view of libraries, that what was needed was a local library ‘fit for the 21st century’
This is a theme that she has taken up many times both in the local press and on the local radio.
What the stance gives is a campaigning foundation to the call for a local library based on some new principles for the 21st century.
Turning to the question of the community taking control of the library, she was given the opportunity to display on a large TV screen a ‘five year plan’ which gave each of the statutory authorities, and a number of key local stakeholder organisations ,the opportunity to see what contribution could be made in each case, in relation to an overall plan.
In giving the presentation, she was careful to listen to comments from a number of organisations, gently explaining that what was on show were ‘suggestions’.
What the articulate presentation did, both in a national and local context, was to give some bones and a framework to a possible approach that pointed towards a realisation of a local plan.
The overview and figures being discussed pointed to East County Council, Wealden Council, the Parish Council and Pevensey Town Trust as possible contributors to the plan..
She fielded questions ensuring that a number of points of view were considered.
As she sat down after finishing her detailed and well thought out contribution to an overall five year plan, it was to passionate applause from everyone present .
The response suggested that the meeting might become one of those talked about moments in the village and a turning point in recent history.
What she has said resonated with both the panel and the audience from the beginning.
Margaret Martin had suggested from the start that what is needed is, ‘a local library for the 21st century’.
East Sussex County Council is open to the possibilities of working with communities in keeping libraries open. In Pevensey Bay it is clear that the work has already begun.
Credit to everyone in organising this meeting, speaking, and to the audience.
The contributions from the audience, for the most part, were of a high quality .
Credit also to a fine upstanding young autistic man, suited and booted, who stood still and silent through the meeting at the side of the room, with the wall in the corner to his back.
His mother spoke on his behalf and said how much the library meant to him and his life.
After her contribution she explained quietly to me that she had hoped that he would have been able to speak and say something about his life and what the library meant to him.
This proved to be not possible for him.
But by being there on this something of a historic local night with us, at a time when a potential library for Pevensey Bay, fit for the 21st century, was being discussed, by bearing witness to what was said, he spoke for us all.
Following the meeting Margaret Martin told Bay Life, “as Huw said we need a wall of noise in Pevensey if we are to keep the library. A small foundation stone has been laid”.
There have been a number of keynote meetings in the locality over the last few years that have been vital to the future of the community. This meeting was most certainly one of those occasions.
Simon Montgomery
editor Bay Life
Village Turns Out To Save Pevensey Bay Library
Eastbourne Buzz: the best news outlet in Eastbourne by a very long way was there: View their exclusive video broadcast and analysis of the event here
