“Together we’re working to give the libraries a better long-term future, but we must keep going” - Cllr Frank O’Kelly

“We had a success in the campaign to secure the long-term future of Cippenham and Langley libraries at Slough Council meeting on Thurs 23 Jan”, said Frank O’Kelly, Lib Dem councillor for Cippenham Village.  

The Lib Dem Cllrs worked with the administration governing Slough to pass a motion on Thurs committing them to “recognise that they will protect existing resourcing levels and ensure the continued provision of library services in Britwell, The Curve, Langley and Cippenham”. The motion also said the administration would seek partnerships for the town libraries “to expand the social offering at each location”.  

To do this most effectively the Council has to keep open the consultation until 25 Feb as planned in order to collect as many ideas from residents as possible. The other option debated at the Council meeting would have stopped the consultation before all the good ideas had been collected. To date the consultation on the libraries has been one of the most engaged consultations in the history of Slough.

OUR MOTION KEPT THE CONSULTATION GOING TO ENSURE THE BEST CHANCE OF GETTING AS MUCH ENGAGEMENT AS POSSIBLE TO HELP BOOST THE LIBRARIES IN THE LONG-TERM. The Council is still dealing with the massive £750 MILLION debts left by Labour Cllrs, so we need to get as wide support as possible to save the libraries in the long-term.

With local residents Frank has been campaigning to save the Cippenham library. Frank has been meeting people in the library, and he and his team have been leafletting his ward encouraging residents to get involved with the consultation to save the libraries - see photo below of Frank leafletting in the rain on 5 Jan to get the message out to residents as soon as possible.

Please continue to help the campaign to save the libraries: 

Oppose the original option to close the libraries in the Council’s consultation survey, AND GIVE YOUR VIEWS FOR HOW THE LIBRARIES COULD WORK WITH LOCAL GROUPS TO INCREASE THE ACTIVITIES AT THE LIBRARIES.  This can be found on the 2024 libraries consultation page of Slough Council’s website: https://slough.citizenspace.com/libraries/slough-library-service-public-consultation/consultation/intro/ 

Oppose the original option to close the libraries in the Council’s consultation’s last drop-in session at Cippenham library, AND GIVE YOUR VIEWS FOR HOW THE LIBRARIES COULD WORK WITH LOCAL GROUPS TO INCREASE THE ACTIVITIES AT THE LIBRARIES: 19 Feb 2025: 11.00-13.00

For more information about the Council’s consultation’s drop-in sessions at all the libraries and about the last on-line event on 11 Feb (18.30-19.30): https://www.slough.gov.uk/news/article/466/library-consultation-events 

Sign the petition on the Council’s website (this is separate from the consultation exercise): https://democracy.slough.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=109&RPID=0&HPID=0 

Sign one of the local petitions.