Does Lambeth understand the impact of Vauxhall developments on demand for our local library? Public meeting Monday 28 May 6.15 to 7.45 at Tate South Lambth Library

Has Lambeth understood the impact of Vauxhall’s development on demand for our local library? That is the question that Friends of Tate South Lambeth Library will put to Adrian Smith, the director of cultural services at Lambeth Council, at a public meeting at the library on Monday May 28th, from 6.15 to 7.45pm. Why is this an issue? The current proposals for the future of the library service in Lambeth involve a cut of near one half in money spent on Tate South Lambeth Library over the next two years (a cut that is much higher than the average for the whole library service). This will inevitably result in a reduction in the service provided – most likely, and immediately, through slashing the number of hours it is open. Its future as a small and under-resourced library must be in doubt – whatever the statements from Lambeth representatives that they do not intend to close any library. Yet over the next two years – and beyond- the population living in the Vauxhall area is due to rise massively as the result of ongoing and planned investment in residential housing there, as part of the Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea development. Does the proposal make sense? Lambeth Council representatives, at the two public consultation meetings held at the library in April, claimed that they have consulted Greater London Authority figures for population in Vauxhall before setting the funds available for the library. How up-to-date are Lambeth’s figures? Have they taken account of high-rise development in the future? The meeting on May 28th is your chance to raise these – and other – questions. Come along to Tate South Lambeth Library, 180 South Lambeth Road.