MINET BOOKS TO BE MOVED?
Fears that the entire stock of the lending books at Minet library could be moved out have been voiced at a meeting of Save Our Libraries.
Libraries supporters attending the meeting heard that it would be impractical to move all the books from the Waterloo library into its planned new home in the nearby Oasis centre in a short space of time.
Fears were expressed that the only way shelves at the Oasis could be filled would be by moving lending book stocks from the Minet library, Knatchbull Road, SE5 or from the Carnegie library at Herne Hill.
The meeting heard that plans for the upstairs floors of the Carnegie library – from which various businesses were evicted by Lambeth council on March 31st – showed they would be staffed by Greenwich Leisure Ltd which, as previously reported, wants to installl a gym in that building and at the Minet.
And the lending library area and the archives area at Minet have not been separated by boards – but by brown paper, the meeting was told.
In a statement in the wake of last Thursday’s meeting Defend the Ten say the planning application for Carnegie has been put back to September and will require listed building consent, there is no deal signed as yet with GLL, and plans are not finalised.
“We face the prospect of both libraries being closed for a year at great expense.
“Meanwhile their plans for Waterloo library continue but with no fixed date for removal to Oasis without staff. “Upper Norwood is due to lose its staff (apart from the 1 post) on 1st July.
“We noted that by 2018 the funding ends for Upper Norwood Library Trust, Oasis and the ‘regular librarian visits’ to the hubs……”