1 minute read
Friends of Peacehaven Library Article, Al-Anon
FRIENDS OF PEACEHAVEN & TELSCOMBE LIBRARY
Many of you may have heard or read about the plans by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) to move Peacehaven and Telscombe Library from its current location in the Meridian Centre to a 39m² storage area (the infamous “cupboard”) at The Joff Youth Centre - a move budgeted to cost £165,000 of taxpayers’ money. Following a large public meeting last November about these proposals, Friends of Peacehaven and Telscombe Library group (FOPTL) was set up to defend our current (and increasingly essential) Library services.
Advertisement
We were relieved to hear from ESCC in May that this move would now not go ahead pending the purchase and planned development of the Meridian Centre site by Morrisons – and that our present much-loved Library will therefore remain open until works which are due to start on the site in early 2024. However, we have no guarantees whatsoever beyond that date.
It remains unclear what library provision ESCC will negotiate with Morrisons within their new development. Worryingly, plans suggested to date seem to show a much smaller library building than our existing space.
Even more worryingly, there seem to be no plans for what would happen to our Library provision between demolition and construction.
Most worryingly of all, ESCC’s planning permission for their move of our Library service to the “cupboard” at The Joff remains valid until 31 December 2025. There is therefore nothing to prevent ESCC from reviving their plans at any point after (or even before) Morrisons begin work on the Meridian site.
FOPTL is campaigning to ensure that ESCC do not revive their unworkable “library-in-a-cupboard” plans – and also to ensure that any new Library provision within the Morrisons development is at least as good as (and preferably even better than!) our current Library in terms of space, staffing, facilities, activities and opening hours.
