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FRIENDS OF CHISWICK LIBRARY Response to Chiswick Library Development Plan
The public would also like access to any existing earlier versions to have some idea of the thinking and perhaps to incorporate some of it into the final plan. Such a massive development on a prime site in a Conservation Area should have been open to competition so that the public has an opportunity to consider alternatives and participate in and understand essential compromises. OWNERSHIP The present library building was gifted to the people of Chiswick (now part of the London Borough of Hounslow) in perpetuity, so long as it remained in use as a library. If it did not it was stipulated that it should revert to residential occupation. We cannot understand, in view of the terms and conditions of the Sanderson donation, how the Borough can give planning permission for change of use. From what was said at the Public Meeting held on January 16th in Chiswick Town Hall, we understood that negotiations were in progress to sell the land to Barley Mow who would then lease it back to the Borough for 999 years at a peppercorn rent. This is not the same as perpetuity and appears to offer no guarantee of the rent remaining the same for the length of the lease. There is considerable disquiet on both the above issues. THE PLAN Without having made reference to the Development Plan so far as commercial development is concerned in this part of Chiswick, it would appear, on the face of it, that the scheme is far too large and unnecessarily so in that some of its present accommodation is unlet. 1.1
The location of the library 1.2
Disabled access The library is, in addition, expected to share the basement with the kitchen for the café on the first floor, and the plant for the entire complex. This leaves little room for doubt that the whole scheme is primarily for the huge expansion of a commercial workspace building with a library grudgingly fitted in underneath along with the amenities. 1.3
Safety factors 1.4
Lighting, ventilation and views 2. The Café The daylit and and characterful space where the library should be located for the reasons listed above - particularly those pertaining to inheritance and disablement - is stolen for an entirely unnecessary café, a particular facility in which Chiswick more than abounds. There are numerous choices within minutes of walking distance from the site. Barley Mow insist on this location as no other would be franchisable to an outside provider: yet another Starbucks, Café Rouge, or a Wine Bar. This additional facility is not meant for workers at Barley Mow who would benefit from a short walk elsewhere, and is, as we say, utterly redundant. We most firmly oppose the Sanderson building being subjected to this misuse. If the café were for the use of workers on site, it could reasonably be situated in the basement next to the kitchen. 3. Parking 3.1 We sympathise with the government's restrictions on parking space in order to discourage the use of cars. We object to what would have been this space being used to house a public library. 3.2 The paucity of parking space coupled with the over development of the site will add to the unsustainable traffic problems in this congested area. 3.3 Many public service workers, such as librarians and their assistants, have to travel in order to get to and from their place of employment at a time when public transport is in a crisis of disarray; like nurses, doctors and teachers they cannot pay Chiswick rents and prices so there should be some parking spaces reserved for them.
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Calculations 2
Open plan 3 Contained spaces 3.1 Discrete needs are best served by discrete spaces. It is acknowledged that the children's library must be separated from the adult's but within the adult area there also needs to be containment. 3.2 There is extremely strong feeling, even universal, that the Reference Library should be a contained quiet space with a staffed information desk, seating for at least the present number i.e. about 50, reference materials which should not be integrated into the lending stock. What we have at present is highly valued and there is alarm that it is to be lost. Students, researchers, readers need these facilities. It would make nonsense of the government's view of the library as a major partner in the provision of community development to abandon such a widely used and appreciated service. 3.4 The local history collection with its valuable items must be kept securely but accessibly in a discrete space where librarians and users can interact. 3.5 The library also requires its own public meeting and exhibition space , that is a large meeting room for about 80 people, a smaller room for committee meetings, and space for exhibitions, all for local groups, if it is to fulfil its function as envisaged by the government. Readings, discussions, lectures, training sessions, meetings of book societies and film groups etc. must be accommodated if the demands being made upon it are to be honestly met. Libraries are not just about lending and borrowing, browsing and reading! Free public space is crucial to the library's role in promoting public engagement with the many facets of its work. TEMPORARY ARRANGEMENTS These could last for at least two years which is a very long time indeed. Without going into detail of the severe inconveniences that the closure of our library will entail, we register the concern felt and the uninterrupted need for the kinds of spaces and facilities mentioned above. Details of Public Meeting and discussion of plans
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