Painswick library campaign goes international?

Well this blog works sometimes - a researcher in London picked up my previous item re Painswick Library - they pass it onto someone at the Managing Information magazine - a magazine that apparently sells in over 70 countries looking at all things to do with information - they contact me and a reporter came out today to talk about progress.

Photo: Cllr Francis Roden and Graham Coult from Managing Information

I am District councillor for the neighbouring ward to Painswick but have not been part of the action group to save the library. However local District councillor Francis Roden has joined the working group - we met at her house in Painswick. For background info read my previous blog items by clicking the 'Labels' note at the bottom of this item - The Painswick Beacon also has an excellent feature about the library giving a great account of the storyu so far and ways forward.

Photo below: The Beacon for those who don't know is an excellent local monthly news magazine - they also have a downloadable version of the latest issue at their website.

Anyhow the meeting with Graham Coult from Managing Information will hopefully lead to an article about how a community is fighting to save its library. He was very positive and keen to see ways he could help - at the same time acknowleding we are really only just at the start of the process.

Brief recap and where now?

At the meeting on 23rd Jan some 130 people turned out, previously 700 people signed a petition and already over £200,000 has been pledged - the community wants this library. It is true it is the least used in the County but it is drab and urgently needs attention - the staff are great and with some love and care to the building this could be part of Painswick's regeneration.

We need to find ways to work with all the parties to get progress on this - it is no secret that I do not agree with the County Councils' closure plans for this library. Can we encourage them to see the importance of local services like this? Services like this are vital to keeping communities alive - Painswick as noted in previous blogs has taken a bit of a knock recently with stores closing, Village Link bus stopping in March, post office threatened etc.

16th Feb is the deadline to raise another £120,000 or so - I do not think it is reasonable for the County to not extend this deadline. They should also return a much greater portion of the money they raise from the sale of the building - as The Beacon writes: "...some might think the County Council impertinent to ask us to pay for something we've already paid for..."

I couldn't agree more. We also need a commitment to ensure that even if the building is sold to the community the County will continue to provide library services. There will also be huge costs in doing up the building: many more ££££££s will be needed!

Photo: inside the library

The Painswick Beacon has an excellent feature on what might be possible - the Painswick Gateway Project - this would include exploring other options like expanding the building to include more community space, possibly a Post Office and maybe encouraging a Farmers Market.

All very exciting and it appears there is good support across the community to take it forward. Keeping local communities viable is also a key part of how we must tackle climate change - a Farmers Market would do huge amounts to cut 'food miles' from all those supermarket goods and could also reduce trips to Stroud or Cheltenham.

Let's hope this article will be another way of galvinising support particularly from the County. It was certainly useful talking to Graham who says he hopes to put a call on MIs website for suggestions to help find ways forward for Painswick. It is great if we can learn from others - as I have noted in previous blogs various Councils are exploring different routes: not all, in my view, are in the best interests of communities - but clearly it is good to know what all the options are.....enough for now on this blog and time for a mug of tea!