West Norwood Library is moving

We are delighted to announce that the library service in West Norwood will be moving into the Old Library on Knight’s Hill from the 1 March.

This will be great news for anyone who wants to see a good library service in West Norwood. We are going to be able to open the library from Monday to Saturday and we will also make it so that it is self service when the building is being used for other activities.

One of the things that we wanted to get right is being able to continue with all the other activities and youth services at the same time and we have just had it confirmed that we can do that. We have now instructed our staff to start purchasing the shelving we need.

One thing we want to acknowledge is the patience that local people have shown throughout all of this. For us we want to end up with a better library service that local people have a real say in how it is run. Like many of you we have been frustrated about the vandalism at Nettlefold Hall and the need to move the library service to a temporary location. We have been working hard to make sure that any work done to the site is planned out properly. One of the big issues has been the discovery of asbestos and we need to make sure we get this sorted properly for everyone’s safety.

In terms of the future we are running the consultation that will help decide what library service you want to see in the future.

Our Cabinet Member for Culture, Florence Nosegbe said: “The future of our library service is about local people getting involved in making it something that they really want. We are very excited about creating a better service that offers something to everyone.”

We already have loads of ideas from residents all across the borough and when the consultation is finished we will get into the real planning with local people. For us the move to being a cooperative council is about you deciding how things are run.

Please do get involved and have you say – the details can be found on our cooperative libraries consultation page. The consultation closes on the 20 April so there is plenty of time to come to one of our consultation meetings or just to write in.