A reader has helpfully sent in these links for anyone who wants to follow up the Kensal Rise Pop Up Library destruction:
The Bursar of All Souls, Thomas Seaman has administrated the sale of our Library: LINK
with the assistance of Richard Tufnell, Asset/Portfolio Manager at Cluttons LINK:
The developer is Andrew Gillick of Kensal Properties Ltd. Cricklewood Library Ltd. Platinum Revolver Ltd. and more: LINK and LINK
Councillors are via LINK Brondesbury, Kensal Green and Queens Park wards are most relevant, aside from the leader LINK and the Lead Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods LINK
This is the response one reader got after contacting Thomas Seaman yesterday:
The Bursar of All Souls, Thomas Seaman has administrated the sale of our Library: LINK
with the assistance of Richard Tufnell, Asset/Portfolio Manager at Cluttons LINK:
The developer is Andrew Gillick of Kensal Properties Ltd. Cricklewood Library Ltd. Platinum Revolver Ltd. and more: LINK and LINK
Councillors are via LINK Brondesbury, Kensal Green and Queens Park wards are most relevant, aside from the leader LINK and the Lead Member for Environment and Neighbourhoods LINK
This is the response one reader got after contacting Thomas Seaman yesterday:
Thank you for your email.
The structures of the pop up library were dismantled today because the College required vacant possession of the building.The Council had asked the College to do this in June of last year, saying the pop up library was in breach of planning control. When we contacted the Friends of Kensal Rise Library regarding this matter, they denied any responsibility for, or control over, the pop up library. The College then waited until the last possible moment to change the status quo.Those books which were on the building’s curtilage have been moved to the pavement alongside the other books which are part of the pop up library.As I am sure you know, all of this is being done so that the building can be refurbished, with the intention of creating space for a library which has been offered to the Friends of Kensal Rise Library to operate on a rent-free long-term lease.Yours sincerely,Tom Seaman
Estates Bursar
(All Souls College)
Library was closed 3 years ago. Let's get over it and face the fact it is now a former library. It will never be a library again simple as that. If some people want a library that bad they can open one in their spare room. Needless to say i wont be coming around. One word AMAZON.
ReplyDeleteIf we are going to face facts, how about this one? The Libraries Transformation Project was the idea of an ambitious Council Officer who wanted to put HER vision of a modern library service into Brent, where she does not live, and against the wishes of the vast majority of those people who do live here and could be bothered to get involved in a so-called consultation on it.
DeleteBrent's then Executive rubber-stamped her plans, when it would have been far more sensible to put them "on hold" for six months to give local "friends" groups the time to produce viable plans for running community libraries. If they could not do so, those libraries would have closed at the end of that six months, with no real cause for complaint, but at least feeling that they had been given a fair chance.
Kensal Rise is one of several former library sites where it would be possible to re-open a local community library to meet the needs particularly of families with children and older people in those neighbourhoods. Instead of repeating the mistakes of the past, Brent councillors and Council Officers should be working with local people so that we can all play a part in building a better place to live for all of our community.
Philip.
So pleased for you 'anonymous ' that you can afford your own personal library. I'm up... pull the ladder up!
DeleteYes reopen if the library was handed over for free and they the operator sub let it out.....and if it did not work out they would have their hand out for a handout...
DeleteAnn John stalks the pages of Wembley Matters. Or is that you Cllr Powney?
ReplyDeleteNo, it's Jim Davidson. Just released from CBB, he's spent the winnings and he's back to the old bitterness. You can find him/her on the related items here too. Pity, not anger, is called for I think.
DeleteWhat happens if We are at peak of Housing Bubble ?
ReplyDeleteIf Me Gillick submits another planning applications consideration by planning department that building would revert to community if his development plans do not procede in a given time frame.
Land Banking is a big problem in land and only way combat is to have such a clause.
Cllr Ann John OBE and Cllr James Powney did a brilliant job. Revolutionised the library service for the whole of Brent not just College Rd. The pop up library was a disgraceful example of a poorly misguided demonstration. Read the FKRL business plan it is a tale of pure fiction that involved running most of the space as a cash generating business, 80,000 per year in rent! Come on wake up renting books from Kensal Rise and the other closed libraries was costing 5 to 10 times what it did in other libraries. The library is closed, the extremists are losing their voice and it is no longer an election issue, if it ever was I doubt it. Even the protest on Friday was arranged at a time so the kids going home could be dragged in... actual protesters there... 5 if even that. Sorry but no election is won on 5 hippy votes. Time for FKRL to disband and stop being so selfish.
ReplyDeleteI encourage those using the Anonymous button to write their comments (it is the easiest to use) to nonetheless add their name at the end of their post (even easier to do) - makes things more open and accountable.
ReplyDeleteIn case anyone things any of the anonymous comments on this blog are mine, for the record I always use my own name.
Martin Francis
How about putting Francis Henry's details here too. I can see Daniels Estate Agents flogging the new development....but that might just be me being realistic (sorry cynical).... I have never seen an estate agent refuse a few bob.
ReplyDeleteI wont be wasting my time contacting anyone.... what would you hope to achieve. It's not like anyone committed a crime!
Saul Rouls asks:
ReplyDeleteCan anyone help with a client's awkward image problem?
Andrew & Maurice Gillick, born Ireland ca. mid 1970's.
Conspicuously invisible - unsurprisingly, very camera shy . . .
Psychoanalytically, their company name 'Platinum Revolver' indicates a subconscious mind helplessly drawn to self indulgence and flashy, aggressive things -possibly even James Bond & gangster fantasies. However the recent, panicked name change to 'Platinum Land' is consistent with hidden discomfort and unease with self image issues and public ridicule.
Gillick on-line spoor ('footprints, finger marks' plus other irreversible tell-tale doings left in someone's wake) paint a telling picture of the Gillicks.
Company records are, unsurprisingly, questionable, with ever-changing information evident.
.... The Gillicks sound like typical property developers dreaming of making it 'Big & Vegas'.
Any suggestions for the Gillick problem ?