LAST CHANCE TO SAVE OLD HENDON LIBRARY.

LAST CHANCE TO SAVE OLD HENDON LIBRARY.

Started
20 March 2021
Petition to
Signatures: 2,618Next Goal: 5,000
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Why this petition matters

Started by Gabbie Lecoat

The iconic Hendon Library is the LAST historic building in the area that we, the public, have regular access to.

Photos of current & proposed Hendon Library

For some time, Barnet Council have been reducing the library’s services and making access trickier. 

The council are now planning to lease the entire building to Middlesex University.   Everything but the façade will be demolished and rebuilt.   

Our library will be re-housed where Egerton Gardens car park currently is, in a “state-of-the-art” space at the bottom of a new 7-storey building. The rest of the building will be accommodation for some of the 800 Middlesex University students the council are proposing will live between The Burroughs and Church End. 

Buildings including homes, businesses, the Meritage Centre, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the PDSA and the African Cultural Centre plus our local car parks will all be demolished to make way for the new student housing. 

The council claim the new library space will “facilitate the provision of a broader and enhanced library offer” and give the library “enhanced visibility”. Even before the plans have had final approval, the council are, right now, publicising a survey online, in school newsletters etc. asking for locals to help design this new library.

BUT THERE IS NO OPTION LISTED IN THE COUNCIL SURVEY TO KEEP THE LIBRARY WHERE IT IS NOW.

Therefore, as an alternative to the survey, this petition is for anyone who wants the opportunity to say: PLEASE CAN WE KEEP OUR LIBRARY? 

We are appealing to the Conservative-led council to CONSERVE this beautiful, locally important building for the residents who voted for you and their children. Create the great changes you’re suggesting to the services the library provides - but inside the old building.  

Leave us this last bastion of civic pride.  

For more info on the Hendon regeneration plans and how to comment via the Feedback Form, click here: The council's Hendon Hub website

“You don’t have to pay to come in. You don’t have to buy anything. You don’t even have to read, if you don’t want to. You can go just to think, or to be quiet. You can study and work there. For some, a library might feel safer than their home, school or workplace.”

 

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Signatures: 2,618Next Goal: 5,000
Support now
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