Some days ago, I posted on the apparent change in "Kensal Rise Library" policy between running the building independently and running it as a Council building. Given the ongoing decline in Council budgets, running the building as a Council library would entail reversing the successful Transformation strategy and closing down at least one library somewhere else, presumably one of the closest alternatives Kilburn (as suggested by the litigants in the past), Harlesden or Willesden.
The original intention of the campaign that first met on 1 December 2010 was simply to reject the Brent Council Transformation proposals, at least as they related to Kensal Rise Library. That meeting also thought about the possibility of bidding for the building although I sensed with a lack of enthusiasm and a certain lack of realism about what it entailed.
In January, along with the Head of Libraries, I met the two chairs of the FKRL to discuss the possibility of a third party takeover of the building in the old Education room at Willesden Library Centre. My heart sank when before they even sat down I was asked "How much money can you give us?". I was then shown a map with a triangle drawn with Chamberlayne Road on one side and All Souls Avenue on the other and the assertion that this was the area that "the Community" lived in. To their disappointment I emphasised how Brent Council was being forced to reduce budgets, and suggested that they needed to construct a business case if they wanted some sort of transitional arrangement to an independently run branch. I also offered to meet other members of the group, but was declined.
FKRL continued to pursue its campaign against the strategy in general with one of the co-chairs apparently trying to persuade some councillors not to vote through a Council budget at all that year.
The FKRL bid was sent to the Council by the March deadline and dealt with in the 11 April Executive report. It was rejected on the grounds I explained at the time.
The litigants then persuaded some councillors to call the decision in, which resulted in it being reaffirmed. They then took the Council to court with a judicial review. I am sure that at this stage they did so because they were certain that the Courts would overturn the decision. The challenge was to the whole strategy, but also relied on arguments specifically relating to the rejection of the various alternative proposals. The High Court heard the action in a case in July, and delivered a verdict in the Council's favour in October. That day the Council started implementing its decision with notices to staff etc. This quickly led to the litigants launching an appeal to block the strategy.
The first positive steps for the Strategy came with the introduction of seven day opening in November.
The appeal Court again rejected the appeal in December, when the Council was able to resume implementing its decision. At that time, FKRL submitted another bid to run the building independently, arguing this time that it would do so at no cost to the Council.
Meanwhile they attempted to persuade the Supreme Court to take another appeal. This appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court in February the following year, whereupon FKRL decided to threaten the Secretary of State with legal action over his failure to make a decision on some of their other complaints. He effectively voided this by rejecting their complaints.
Meanwhile, in February 2012, if you are still with me, All Souls College wrote to the Council suggesting that they now owned the building. The Council took legal advice on this contention, and wrote to the College in April saying it did not contest it. Finally, the building was handed over to the College in vacant possession to the College in May that year.
Since the building was no longer owned by the Council there was no actual decision to reject FKRL's second bid to run the building as an independent concern. It simply became irrelevant.
Once the building was back in possession of All Souls College, they decided to put it on the market. Brent Council briefly considered using for school places, but the College decided to sell it to a developer instead. At this time I believe FKRL put in their own independent bid to obtain the building. The developer appeared to be keen to work with FKRL, but the group reacted furiously to their third attempt to run the building being rejected, and demanded that the College rerun the whole process. The College declined to so, and the litigants met the new owner.
There followed an extremely lengthy war of attrition against the new owner, seeking to prevent him from getting planning permission for the building. This lasted until July 2014, when the decision went through. Once granted the owner decided to sell to a new developer called UpLift, who converted it and began marketing the flats from July 2016. FKRL appear to have managed a less hostile relationship with this developer and since then repeatedly suggested that they are going to manage the building independently again.
Although they have had a number of capital grants from the Council, these have not been as part of the Council's statutory library service, but are based the idea that the FKRL group is an independent charity for the purposes of running the building as a stand alone institution. A recent announcement put this in doubt.
No comments:
Post a Comment