A group of library users in Mile Oak said that its closure this week would leave a massive gap in community space and facilities in Portslade.
Friends of Mile Oak Library organised a community visit on Saturday, with the library due to close on Friday (21 July).
Last month, Brighton and Hove City Council announced it was closing Mile Oak Library because of low visitor numbers and the high costs of running the service.
Mile Oak parent Vicky Smith, who helped set up the Friends of Mile Oak Library, said that the community library visits were organised after the closure was announced to help educate residents about “what they were about to lose.”
She said: “When we started to talk to other parents and friends, we realised how many people didn’t know the library had reopened after the prolonged closure during covid or who, due to its place in a school, had no idea it was there.
“The library has very poor signage, no outside noticeboard and is hidden inside PACA (Portslade Aldridge Community Academy).
“Lots of other people had stopped going because after reopening they’d often found it closed during opening hours, hadn’t known about the new buzzer system and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get in – or had seen the lights off and thought it was closed.
“People from the new estate didn’t even know it was there as it wasn’t mentioned along with other local amenities in their welcome packs and if they’d noticed it, they’d assumed the library was part of PACA.
“We started the events as a fun way to encourage people to visit the library again or for the first time and to find out about what they were about to lose.
“We also wanted to make a bit more noise about the closure because it’s been framed as down to disinterest when in fact low footfall is down to its position in PACA which restricts its opening hours to late afternoons and Saturday morning and prevents LibrariesExtra access, to poor advertising and signage, hardly any events and a confusing and unwelcoming entrance.
“We have no other free community space or activities left in Mile Oak.
“Our children’s centre no longer holds events for young families and there are no spaces for carers groups, elderly people or anyone else to meet. We don’t even have a café.
“We’ve been told we can use Portslade or Hangleton libraries but that turns a free activity into one that costs money – plus you can’t get a bus direct to Portslade library and it’s a two-hour round trip to Hangleton, not great with young children or if you’re elderly.
“We need an alternative library space with hours that meet our community’s needs, where we can have toddler story sessions and book groups in the morning, maybe even a café.”
After a public consultation in June, the council said that budget pressures meant the library had to close. It said that it was costing an average of £19 a visit compared with an average of 78p in other Brighton and Hove libraries.
The group is collating information about the barriers to visiting the library and what is wanted for Mile Oak in the future from residents and library users.
I agree entirely that Mike Oak library has not been used to its full potential by local residents for years due to its lack of signage, opening hours and no form of advertising/noticeboard.
I was a big user of the library before Covid, my children would use it and take part in activities there, I belonged to a book group held there. However, anyone in the community I spoke to over the years never realised it was a public facility but thought it was just for pupils of PCC and then PACA.
It’s such a shame to see it close.
Rather than close Mile Oak library, the library service should close saltdean library and use the resources saved to boost mile Oak..
Saltdean residents like me can use both rottingdean library, only a mile away, and Peacehaven library, less than 2 miles away with busses almost door to door
Can Brighton and Hove residents use Peacehaven Library though? It’s an East Sussex service so if you’re on the wrong side of the boundary you presumably would not be eligible
I used to work in PCC and then PACA and I honestly never knew that the library was there, that is how bad the signage and information is!
Mile Oak area is probably one of the most remote areas of the City and certainly not one of the wealthiest. It costs so much for a family to travel to libraries.
Where there are no other community services locally, this facility must be reopened pronto.
Take a day from one of the central local libraries and another day off a second one, and give these residents their rightful access. Even opening for one day a week, taken from other libraries’ provision will be beneficial and probably appreciated by new joiners too.
As residents have said: better promotion. Have a couple of open days and promote services and community events for all age groups.
I am sure there will now be a lot more new faces wanting to retain their library services.
You don’t know what you have lost until it has gone.
Sounds like a better promotion of a Community Centre with books in, to be honest, rather than a library.
Some libraries ARE housed within community centres, which is the best option, as it cuts operating costs all round and points people to all of the services available when they just come in to use one.
This would be a good idea here.
Maybe look at the Whitehawk model which has a little cafe and I think the GP. surgery is also there, and a security chap on the desk for all services, when the library is not staffed.
I was a teacher at PCC some years ago and remember taking students there for research. At that time there were usually some local residents using it at the same time, which is great for the kids to see. Closing this resource will be a kick in the head for local residents. Many poorer families still do not have internet access at home and for many people of all ages the access to computer time is a genuine lifeline when benefit and job applications are routinely online only these days. An outrage when huge sums of money are spent prettying Brighton up, I believe the £35,000 per year projected as savings wouldn’t even cover councillors hospitality costs. Brighton and hove Council shame on you.
This is where money spent on little used bike lanes would have been better spent on improving signage and facilities to keep Mile Oak Library open.This applies also to all the “GREEN”,”WOKE”and other lunatic agendas that have been firced on the City by these various narrow minded ,Cancel Culture ,Luddite”MINORITY” ,groups who don’t believe in democracy but implement these changes by diktat as used to be done in the Commisars of the ” Soviet Paradise of the USSR”………….