No Cash for Chiswick Library for Three Years
No Cash for Chiswick Library for Three Years
Budget Constraints means no funding for major redevelopment
Following
the recent announcement that Workspace Plc pulled out of plans to re-develop
Chiswick Library, Council Officers have been reviewing plans for smaller
scale improvements necessary to meet the Disability Discrimination Act
requirements (an act which lays down guidelines for minimum access standards
for buildings which are currently not met at Chiswick library).
Sanderson House, the building in which the library is currently situated, has long been considered inadequate to meet the needs of the public who use it.
After considering the scale of the development work necessary and indeed the price tag which would accompanying this, Council Officials consider that there would appear to be no immediate solution.
An appraisal of possible developments on the site as well as within the broader catchment of the Chiswick area will be suggested at the next Chiswick Area Committee Meeting, however, it was clear that capital budget strategy, set on March 9th 2004, made no provision for the redevelopment of the library. The same budget report stressed that the Council's capital resources over the next 3 years are severely restricted and that no capital expenditure other than that shown in the 3 year strategy will proceed.
Unless a fully self-financing scheme, such as Workspace's, comes forward for the Library redevelopment, no proposal can be considered.
The
closure of the library continues to be firmly ruled out.
March 19, 2004