Parent-protester Cara Thom (left) who addressed councillors about the Balloch Library closure at the Open Forum session in Dumbarton.

By Bill Heaney

Protesters against the closure of Balloch Library are determined to continue their quest for a judicial review against Labour controlled West Dunbartonshire Council’s decisions to move it into “a space the size of a cupboard” across the road in the primary school campus for St Kessog’s and Balloch primary schools.

Parent protester Cara Thom told councillors on Wednesday that the library was a treasured resource for the people of multiply deprived Haldane and the other housing estates in Balloch and the surrounding area which includes Jamestown, Dalvait, Old Bonhill and Levenvale.

In an Open Forum address to the council she said that no less than the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) – have published information on Data Poverty and Digital exclusion.

Cara said: “They state that reliance on digital [for comms training and general use for job applications and the like] increased exponentially during significant national lockdowns and libraries are at the centre of the collaborative effort to ensure no one is left behind in the new digital landscape as envisioned in A Changing Nation: How Scotland will Thrive in a Digital World (2021).

“One in 7 people across Scotland experience data poverty, rising to 1 in 4 in lower income households. One in five of those experiencing data poverty depended on libraries for access pre-pandemic.

“Public libraries will continue to offer vital access and ongoing digital support that embrace both the challenges and the opportunities that the digital world presents.

“Balloch Library was heralded as the best equipped computer suite offering free Wi-Fi outside Glasgow following the £100,000 investment made to the library in 2017.

“My question is: – Please explain to the community why, in this area of high deprivation, the Council has made the decision to increase Data Poverty and Digital Exclusion by reducing the number of computers available at Balloch Library, once heralded as the best equipped Computer suite outside Glasgow, from eight to three?

“At present, Balloch Library has a footprint of 270 square metres, but the plans for Balloch School Campus show that the new library will be roughly 50 square metres (not including toilets) formed from the head teacher’s office, part of the nursery teachers’ staffroom and the printer room, all of which are
necessary to the running of the school/nursery.

“With a reduction of around 80 per cent, this is a tiny amount of space, totally inadequate for a library.

“We refer to your public service provision policy and say that the council need to demonstrate that such a percentage decrease is justifiable.

“We believe that there will be a limit to the number of people who can be in the new library space at the same time, which will affect critical community services, like Bookbug, which is not just for a child’s early year’s development, but social interaction for children and caregivers.

“My question is:-Regarding Policy PS 1 – Public Service Provision Section 11.4, do you have data on the number of library users and when they attend?

“The letter from the Council in October told parents that all renovations would be completed by the beginning of 2024. They were told the library will open early that year.

“We the community are very worried about the risk to both children and library users.

“Our concerns include the following: Scottish Government policy gives guidance on the purpose of Spare Capacity within a School.

” It is there NOT for the purpose of establishing a public facility like a library within a school estate. It is there to ensure that a school has the capacity to fulfil future rises in population, e.g., new housing like the flats being built on the grounds of The Stables Restaurant [next door to Balloch Library].

“The Chief Officer: Citizen, Culture and Facilities [Amanda Graham] quoted Balloch Primary school at the council meeting on the 8 November as operating at 69% capacity. The current number of pupils in Balloch Primary is 301. This equates to an 81% capacity.

Labour councillor Danny Lennie and Amanda Graham, chief officer for libraries, who said there was no reason why the change should not go ahead.

“Can you please investigate, and re-assess, the Chief Officer: Citizen, Culture and Facilities’ figure of 69% which we believe is based on data from the previous school year and is now out-of-date.”

It was left to a Clydebank Labour councillor, Danny Lennie, to come up with justifiable reasons why the council would be going ahead with the closure – despite the widespread objections from people of all groups across the community.

He had been given the poison chalice in order that none of the Labour councillors in the Balloch area would suffer electorally from imposing the council’s wish on the hard-pressed community.

Cllr Lennie no doubt did his best but it very much looked from the public gallery in the council’s not fit for purpose, £16 million chambers, as if he had drawn the short straw in the Labour Group and had been chosen to take the bullet.

Provost Douglas McAllister, who supports the library closure and only reluctantly gave Cara Thom a few seconds to explain one of the points she had made, agreed that the council’s answers to the three persons who had spoken at the Open Forum would eventually receive  the council’s answers in writing.

Only one mention was made of the £50,000 the council estimated how much it would save by closing the library.

That was when, during another debate on the amount of money it had cost to engage in failed negotiations to work jointly with Inverclyde Council on the possibility of having a shared road department, said it was not a significant amount of money – “somewhere between £50,000 and £100,000”.

Ms Thom said she was unhappy with the way things had gone and vowed the keep the campaign to keep the library open by pressing ahead with the community’s plans for a judicial review.

• So this was Christmas at West Dunbartonshire Council where the members presented some of  their colleagues with cards and sweets before the meeting which was twice interrupted with mobile telephones going off playing festive tunes and one officer who couldn’t wait to the end of the meeting – she had to leave to answer her phone at one point – get her teeth into a box of Big Mix.