PROPOSALS COULD BRING NEW LEASE OF LIFE TO CHISWICK LIBRARY

Chiswick will have a ‘state of the art’ library if proposals go ahead to develop the existing building. The plan aims to preserve and renovate the Victorian features of the popular Chiswick library and provide modern facilities that meet the needs of today’s users. The development follows the Committee of the Council’s approval of the borough’s Strategic Library Review which set out proposals to improve facilities in Chiswick. The new building would be provided at no extra cost to Council tax payers as the proposal will be funded via monies from an S106 agreement.

Over 380,000 people a year visit the library making it the second busiest in the borough and busier than the main libraries of ten other London boroughs. The building was originally a residential property converted to a library use with a late 1930’s extension. The current layout is difficult to supervise and there is no disabled access to the reference section upstairs. It is felt that the current building is too small for the library’s needs and level of demand from the public.

Cllr Ron Bartholomew, Executive Member for Cultural Services, said, “Chiswick library is one of the best used libraries in the area and we are confident that this proposal could preserve the best of the current library but at the same time give residents the state of the art services they need”.

He cited the lack of access as a key reason for the redevelopment and suggested that more internet access will be available in the new library.

He added, "Because the upstairs rooms aren’t load bearing, we can’t use them for heavy book stacks. Having a series of rooms rather than one open plan space means we need extra staff and are not able to extend the opening hours, as we would wish. We would also dearly love to provide more community and local history facilities but that is not possible with the current building.”

The size of the library will be significantly increased. The proposals would offer 18,000 sq ft of public library space on one single floor. The proposed library would incorporate improved accessible community space for public hire and use with the Citizens Advice Bureau likely to relocate there.

According to the Council initial discussions with special interest groups such as the Friends of Chiswick Library have been positive and wider consultation is about to start with a meeting on 16 January in the Town Hall, Chiswick.

Details of Public Meeting and discussion of plans