Post Script - is Crown Street dead?

"Over 3000 library users completed the council’s survey, and 91% of them disagreed or strongly disagreed with the library moving to the Dolphin Centre.
Almost 7000 people have signed the petition against the move.
Almost 1000 people attended the protest against the move".
Gemma McDonald, Chair of the Community Libraries Steering Group 

Visit Darlington Library - Keep it at Crown Street and you will see the library debate played out - Darlington council determined to move the library to the Dolphin Centre; the people of Darlington that care, vociferously opposing the move. Visit 'The Library Campaign' and you will see the problem nationwide.

My love for the Crown Street library and the heritage that it encapsulates, is well known and appears in my previous blogs. I reflect on the tragedy of yet another public building succumbing to 'cuts' - or should that be 'mismanagement of public funding'? I note the irregularity of a Labour council hemorrhaging support for public services, and wonder whether they consider they were elected for this toxic cut? I note the lack of tangential vision from our governing council, and their incapacity to contemplate the alternative plan.

My understanding has been that Edward Pease endowed the library project with the intention that his bequest was to provide a public library for the children of Darlington, and that the resulting land and building were thereafter subject to a restrictive covenant for use as a library.

Having viewed the Land Registry entry for the library, and inspected a 1983 statutory declaration, it is clear that a covenant, whilst lost in local government reorganisation, probably subsists.

Now the council's intention is clear:

• To pass an early resolution on the proposed budget savings in their entirety.
• Proceed over time, to reduce Crown Street's function: close the computer room / exhibition room/ library / reference section at Crown Street - by withdrawing services slowly so that the use of the 'building as a library' withers and ceases. 
• Re-deploy, seek voluntary redundancies over a period of time, then serve notices on the remaining library and associated staff.
• Close and board the building, having relocated all amenities elsewhere.
• Then give notice to remove the covenants on the basis that the library as envisaged by the Pease family, has been successfully relocated in modern, sustainable, affordable premises.
• Having demonstrated that it is no longer be used as a library (the library and education sections having been relocated), put forward an irresistible case for the removal of the covenants, such as they were.
• Offer the building for sale, subject to the Grade II listing, but free from covenants.
• Use the capital received on sale to off-set the costs of removal to the Dolphin Centre.

But, let us consider the covenants. 

Referring to legal advice given to the council, paragraphs 55-61 of the Cabinet Report say:

55.   Upon his death in 1880, Edward Pease bequeathed the sum of £10,000 which was used to build the original library building that eventually opened in 1885. The Council has obtained a copy of the Will in which the bequest was made from the Probate Registry and it states that the £10,000 bequeathed by Edward Pease was ‘for the education of the poorer classes’ and could be used to either establish or found a free library or Elementary School scholarships for both boys and girls in the Borough of Darlington. 

56.   1983 statutory declaration was made by a former Assistant Borough Solicitor about the loss of deeds (possibly during local government reorganisation) in 1974. The statutory declaration indicates the property was thought to be subject to a restrictive covenant that it should be ‘used for purposes of a public library forever’. If a covenant subsists, it applies only the northern part - the land on which the library sits was conveyed in three separate tranches between 1885 and 1930.  

57.   Searches undertaken of adjacent land in Crown Street have not disclosed any land owner who has the benefit of a covenant in respect of the Crown Street property. A search has been conducted on the Charity Commission website and there is no reference to any charitable trust in respect of the Crown Street building. No one has come forward during the consultation with any documentary evidence that clarifies the position. Officers have contacted members of the Pease family during the consultation period.

58.    Land Registry records show the Council as the freehold owner, but reference is made to lost deeds and documents and that restrictive covenants imposed before 9 September 2010 are still enforceable.  

59.    On the evidence currently available there does not appear to be any restrictive covenant capable of being enforced.  

60.   As matters stand there remains some uncertainty over the existence and nature of any obligations in respect of the Crown Street building. However, concerns about a covenant will not hinder the proposed move from Crown Street. The Council is not required or compelled to provide a library service from Crown Street. 

61.    Any future options for Crown Street will need to take account of issues identified in respect of the property as well as any addition information that may become available. 

So, there is a question concerning the covenant. 

As a lawyer I cannot quite understand how the council's advisor leaps from the findings, to paragraphs 59 and 60? If there is, or may be, a restrictive covenant relating to Crown Street, why is it incapable of being enforced?

Why is it not possible for those that seek to challenge the position, to challenge the council on this assertion?

This lawyer wonders whether s.84 Law of Property Act 1925 may be relevant to the removal of restrictive covenants from land - a not especially easy or quick process - and an expensive one for the council when contested. 

The questions that I would like to ask policy makers are:

1. By what process, and on what timescale does the council propose to remove library, exhibition centre, reference and computer facilities from Crown Street? 
2. Have existing library and support staff been notified of these proposals; if not, when and by what means was it proposed that they should be notified?
3. What precise facilities have been identified to accommodate the library, reference and computer facilities in the Dolphin Centre, and on what timescale? Will the archives (housed elsewhere) continue to be available to the public?
4. What is the council's current plan for the Crown Street building? 
5. Does the council propose to seek a removal of the existing restrictive covenants, when, by what mechanism,and over what timescale?
6. If by application under s.84 Law of Property Act 1925, why defer this application?
7. From whom has the council taken legal advice as to removal of covenants? Will they publish that advice so that the public can inspect it?

Friends at Crown Street Library Revisited

So tonight, Friends of the Libraries group has been formed. It arrived with a whimper rather than a fanfare. Fortunately the councillors there were all committed 'preserve the library' proponents, or they would immediately have perceived a weakness. The 40 or so attenders formed predominantly a sea of grey.

My contribution was short and to the point. There will be time enough in due course to mico-manage uses for the building, a feat that in any event cannot be accomplished - or even effectively started within the consultation time-scales set by the council.

What is needed now is a huge campaign of protest from a dynamically organised Darlington population. It must involve everyone- from the smallest child in the town's smallest school, to the largest director in the town's key businesses. It needs a day of protest in the town centre, with dozens of petitioners wearing gelco bibs, schools and colleges to close for the morning so that children and students can picket the town hall. It needs the support of every parent who values a free public library service in Crown Street. It needs a band!

As things stand, a public consultation will be deemed to have proceeded, and our elected councillors will take their party whip to vote for the cut rather than the conscience.

The quiet voices of the town's residents and readers will be drowned in a sea of red tape, as Darlington's Chief Executive discovers ways to defeat the library covenants and buy off opponents with promises.

As an experienced mediator, I recognise that there will come a time to sit around a table - if such is ever offered. But now is not that time. The Friends group, rather like their steering committee, presently lack the political experience and credibility to make themselves heard. Only with a clear public mandate of 'No' to closure, will objectors get beyond the strategic stage.

Whilst these steps are urgent, and in my view essential - the steering committee should continue to make progress with local business leaders and those with clear political ambitions, putting together the rescue package that uses every commercial opportunity and resource that the historic building may offer. This will not be easy. It will require skilled management, persistence and determination.

But first, the Friends of the Libraries group needs to be empowered - not simply by conviction, but by public mandate. And that means - YOU.

Without your support - in practical, selfless and time-giving terms, the libraries will gradually close, their staff will receive their redundancy notices (perhaps delivered by taxi) and our historic buildings will become forever figures in ledgers.

Crown Street Library

I love Crown Street library, first visiting at the age of 5. It was there that I borrowed my first book, paid my first fine, with the late Vera Chapman attended my first Field Club meeting, saw my first nature documentary film, viewed my mother's first exhibition, and met librarian Jennifer, my second girlfriend.

Of a Darlington population of 106,000, the library is reported to have 52,000 members, 10,000 borrowing books  (or is that 10,000 books borrowed) last year. 17,000 used the local studies centre, apparently. Over 900 people protested outside the library on 26 March, and over 2000 residents have posted Northern Echo coupons asking for a stay of execution.

I launched a user poll on the Darlington Library - Keep it at Crown Street Facebook group (961 members). Only 75 members responded that they had visited it in the last 12 months, 44 had borrowed a book, and 12 reported that they liked to study there. One said that she preferred to buy her books from Waterstones or Amazon!

The figures, not least from a simplistic poll, speak volumes. The poll tells us is that even within a group set up to secure the future of the library, indifference abounds when it comes to using Crown Street. So, that's the problem.  Most of us have an interest in the library, but relatively few of us actually participate. 

Now you might be asking if my admiration for Crown Street library is fading? 

Most certainly not. But in its present form, with current use and financial cost, both the building and its contents of books and archives seem financially unsustainable. 

Libraries must compete with a plethora of vital or merited public services, and cannot take away core funding. Elected politicians say, as it stands, the library is a luxury we cannot afford.

So, what to do? 

Yvonne Richardson draws our attention to the Lit and Phil, Newcastle. Their array of events in 'Whats On' is astonishing. 

Since 1825, like Crown Street library, the Lit & Phil has welcomed thousands of people, witnessed ‘world firsts’ in innovation and grown a unique collection of books.

It’s now so much more than a library. It’s an historic building, a refuge, a meeting place, office, theatre, lecture hall, performance space and still an outstanding library. Independently owned, it does not receive regular public funding - so this means that it can make its own decisions.

Darlington people who wish to keep their Crown Street library really do need to step up or shut up. Neither the cost, nor the human resources to maintain a library at this location seem to be likely from public funding, if our councillors are to stick to budgetary constraints. 

We need a clear plan, and a hoard of capable volunteers to commit/contract to it over a long period of time. Ideas are one thing, but like protests outside the library or key strokes on social media, they do not save libraries. The plan must be commercial, detailed, costed, resourced and viable. It needs to be the only plan.

In 1972, director Peter Tod took a desperately ailing building and turned it into a successful venture - breathing life into the Civic Theatre for the next 40 years. Can we do the same for Crown Street library? In 1885 Edward Pease left £10,000 in his Will for 'a library or other educational purpose'. His vision, our library, is at stake, and we desperately need to do something about it.

P.S. My current partner sent her first message to me from a Crown Street library screen - another reason to love it.