Townleygreen,
You are right, volunteers have done an excellent job in Sydenham library and as a result of this, and the cafe opening inside, visitor numbers to Sydenham library have increased by 22% (Oct 2010-Oct 2014). Which is a credit to all involved.

To put this into context Forest Hill library has only had a 17% increase in visitor numbers over the same period, although it has maintained twice as many visitors as Sydenham library, and about 8 to 10 times as many book borrowings.

But to keep Forest Hill open for the 66 hours in is current open would take twice the number of volunteers as Sydenham, including volunteers staying around until 8pm and during the day on Saturday and Sunday. To staff the library with volunteers to that level would take a lot of commitment from the local community.

If Forest Hill becomes a community library it is likely that services will deteriorate due to the loss of professional library staff, opening hours would be under threat, and borrowing would plummet - as we have seen in all community libraries in Lewisham.

I look forward to hearing why this would be good news for Forest Hill at the ward assembly on Saturday.