Library campaigners have reacted angrily to the admission by a senior Council officer that Willesden Green library, including the archive collection will be closed for two years from April 2012.
Writing to Brent SOS Libraries on 3 November 3rd, Jenny Isaac, Assistant Director (Neighbourhood Services) confirmed that only a side hut in Grange Road will be left open. It will have study space for only eight people, six computers, and only a very limited supply of books will be available. This news comes on top of the closure of half the borough's libraries last month.
Graham Durham ,Secretary of Save Cricklewood Library Campaign, said:
The boarding -up of nearby Neasden and Cricklewood Libraries - and the stripping of all books from Cricklewood - before the legal case was completed has already shown the contempt Brent Council has for local people in the area. Although Councillor James Powney and library chiefs Sue Harper and Sue MacKenzie have refused to meet Cricklewood residents for over eight months now, they did promise that a wonderful facility would be available at Willesden Green.The Brent Executive is due to consider a report on the redevelopment of Willesden Green Library at their meeting on November 14th at Brent Town Hall.
This promise has now been shown to be a complete lie. In fact study opportunities and access to the internet, as well as local research and book lending, will be virtually non-existent. In their discussion of 'pop-up' libraries the range of overpaid Council officers and Labour Cabinet members are having a really bad taste joke at the expense of young and old who cannot afford to travel even further afield to Harlesden and Kilburn.
It was already a very difficult and expensive journey for parents with small children from Cricklewood and Neasden to Willesden Green - now that option has been destroyed for a generation of children.
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