Dave Sharman, a Green Party candidate for the Peninsula ward, has written to Greenwich Council asking for assurances that East Greenwich Library will not be closed.
The library, donated to the community by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, is also home to Greenwich Community College’s Meridian Music Centre.
Greenwich Community College is currently undertaking a consultation process on the courses it can afford to offer after it had a 10% cut imposed on its “Adult Learner Responsive” budget this year.
The review involves all aspects of the college, including the Meridian Music Centre, although local Greens claim that staff have already been told the music centre will close at the end of this academic year.
Dave Sharman commented: “I hope the music college’s planned closure is not part of a wider project to do away with the library by stealth – the people of East Greenwich will not stand for that”
Cllr John Fahy, Greenwich Cabinet Member for Culture and Olympics, commented that “the Scheme [to refurbish the library] and Estimate is being costed and work will commence shortly“.
He added that he would continue to work with the Friends of East Greenwich Library and Ward Councillors “to maximise a long term future for the building“.
While I am pleased that the Greens in Peninsula ward appear to have taken up yet another one of our campaigns, I thought you might be interested to know what the likely answer to their letter might be.
For your information I had a meeting with Cllr Fahy and officers of the Council about the fate of the East Greenwich Library on 17th November 2009. At that meeting Cllr Fahy gave the same reassurances that he provides in your article.
As I am (I fear) not an entirely trusting soul, I asked to see the report and in January I received a reply stating
“I can now advise, that following my email to you on 7th December 2009….. a Scheme and Estimate report is being drafted for East Greenwich Library repairs …. As soon as this is completed and cleared, a copy will be available.” (names removed)
This report has been requested at regular intervals since then and in reply to the most recent request to see the report, I was informed on 8th March that the report was still not available.
This leads me to two comments about my political opponents.
Firstly, that I am surprised that the Greens have so little knowledge of what is going on locally that they feel obliged to make grand statements about writing to Greenwich Council when they could simply ask the Conservatives what is going on and we would gladly provide the information they need. We have been supporting residents’ calls to protect the East Greenwich Library for a long time, not just in the run up to an election.
Secondly Labour’s slowness in producing the report suggests that they are really not that keen to make any statement at all prior to the elections. I wonder if they don’t want to publish the plan at this point as we will be disappointed in what it contains. I do hope that after 4 months of asking that Labour will get round to publishing the report soon so we can all see what is planned and judge them accordingly.
I can hardly imagine that Spencer Drury is the champion of public services. One need only to look at the regular statements from Tory Central Office on deepcuts if ever they were elected (god forbid). The East Greenwich Library is only on his radar because of his political ambitions. No doubt it will bne forgotten very soon after the elections.
I had hoped you might have printed my full response in respect of the future of the Building. Discussions are taking place about the future of the Community College in the Building. We are not sitting on our hands. I am activily engaged with a number of organisations to sustain and improve the offer available to the local community.
The plans to create the East Greenwich Cultural Corridor is well underway. A really exciting opportunity for positive partnerships to be developed in the longer term. The East Greenwich Library building will form part of a long term strategy for the area.
Why would I want to share a report with Councillor Drury. He never believes anything we say anyway. Such is the politics of the Tory Party. This time,as so often in the past,he has got it wrong. No doubt he will be on another bandwagon next week.
When you’ve both finished…
Cllr Fahy, do you have any more information to hand on this “long term strategy” for the area? Genuinely, it would be appreciated if this could be shared with the people who pay for these things to be drawn up. Outside of all this jolly election jousting, there are a lot of people concerned about the future of the library. At present, the current “long term strategy” for east Greenwich only seems to have resulted in a huge area of wasteland where a hospital used to stand. So I hope you’ll understand if others are a bit sceptical.
Darryl Chamberlain (Peninsula candidate, Green Party)
I can’t believe how many Libraries there are near me. Way too many from Greenwich to Westcombe park to Blackheath standard, all reached within 5 minutes by one bus route. Is there any point in this internet age? I think two minimum should be shut – perhaps just leaving the Blackheath std library because this is the only one with wifi, the rest are just full of dusty old books and wierdos.
The libraries are used by a tiny minority of people – I’m sure it would be cheaper to buy every single visitor a laptop. I would prefer the taxes back. Why is a Tory Councillor supporting a near useless institution?
There’s been a hole in the pavement the size of a van ever since I moved to Greenwich TWO years ago. It’s now filled with rats the size of cats and 6ft deep in litter and kebabs (corner of Blackheath road/Greenwich Sth st).
What’s going on with all these stupid egotistical projects and money blown on ‘consultations’, we want practical things done or our money back.
A ‘cultural corridor’ just sounds complete nonsense. Why don’t you concentrate on cleaning up graffiti instead? None of you are visionaries, get over it and do the things that make a difference to our lives instead of wasting money.
I appreciate the difficulty the Green Party has in getting their campaign messages across. The current tactic to rubbish the Council seems to be the only game in Town. Darryl is clearly unaware of the efforts of local residents and Traders to improve the local environment and the East Greenwich Cultural Corridor is their initiative,not one from the Council but we welcome the initiative. Perhaps the Local Resident can EMail me and I will send him a copy.
It is a matter for the Community College as to what services it provides and where they are located. If the space in the Library will be vacated we will find an alternative Cultural use run by another organisation.
The plans for the Hospital Site ” The Heart of East Greenwich”will happen,be assured. under Labour the Council will fulfill its promises to residents.
Cllr Fahy –
With the greatest of respect, there’s a library with people’s jobs at stake. There’s a music college there with staff not knowing what their futures will be after the summer. And that’s before we get to the people who use and love the library, and the students at the college. Many of whom pay taxes which pay for the offices of yourself and Cllr Drury.
Is giving them a straight answer less important than electioneering for your party? We’re only asking a question on their behalf. We didn’t ask to be patronised. By you, or your opponent. This exchange isn’t really showing Greenwich councillors of either stripe in the best light, is it?
I’d just like to echo what Darryl’s said. Name calling by politicians looks childish at the best of times. During an election campaign it looks positively suicidal. Are you actively trying to get us not to vote?
(Is politics the only profession where it seems to be acceptable to publicly abuse the opposition? I really cannot think of another. Even sportsmen keep their sledging for the pitch)
Councillors. You are both public representatives of men who want to be able to govern this country. Men who want to decide how we raise tax, how we spend it and how and where we go to war. You are both paid by taxpayers to run the borough. And yet yhere ou are squabbling over who raised issues first and whether you need to pass data to your colleagues ‘because he never believes anything we say anyway’ (a phrase I don’t think I’ve heard since I was about 14).
Shame on you. You’re both very silly boys. Grow up, get back to work and don’t do it again.
The saddest thing is that Cllr Fahy has put time and effort to spray these pages with childish jibes, but he hasn’t even bothered to respond to Dave’s e-mail.
I’m starting to see why it’s hard to get things done in Greenwich.