Update on Painswick Library

The SNJ reported that Painswick's church rooms could now house a community library and tourist information centre. Some regular blog readers may remember I had a very small involvement in trying to keep the library open - sadly the Gateway project fell through and the library closed last December. I welcome that the Parish Council are still seeking ways to keep it open.

Photo: Francis Roden from Feb 2007 and the library campaign

Back some three years ago I met with the editor of an international magazine that specialises in information, libraries etc - well they did a feature a big article about Painswick Library after I organised some interviews with folk including the District Councillor Francis Roden, now Council Leader. The editor has been in touch again and was after an update. Well there is not a lot to say on top of what the SNJ wrote which I include below for folk interested in this story....do also click on the library label below for many previous blogs on libraries that I fear will be once again threatened by the forthcoming cuts...

The council has been trying to find a way to keep the tourist information and library service running after Gloucestershire County Council closed the former library building in Stroud Road in December due to a damp problem. It was thought that a volunteer-run tourist information could be housed in the old Lloyds bank building in Bisley Street but plans fell through in June.

Painswick Parish Council has now agreed to temporarily house the tourist information centre in the upper part of the town hall. It is partitioned from the hall's regular events is now open six days a week.

Parish councillors are now waiting for the results from GCC's consultation on the need for a library service in the village so that they can decide on a more permanent solution.

The Rev John Longuet-Higgins, the vicar of Painswick and the surrounding villages, attended the parish council meeting and suggested the church rooms could house a community library. "It is a definite possibility that the church rooms could house a library run by the community," he told the SNJ after the meeting. There are a fair number of people in the village who would be interested in such a scheme. Myself and the Parochial Church Council are very much in favour of the rooms being used by the community. At the moment we just have to wait until the GCC consultation results come in."

The results are due in late September and parish councillors hope they will then know if GCC intends to provide a library service in the village or whether it would help fund a community scheme. A petition with more than 500 signatures was sent to the county council in March, after villagers expressed concern about the closure of their library.