Readers with the time and patience to follow the Carnegie Library saga will be aware that councillors are discussing the future of the building and its grounds with a group comprising three of their fellow activists from the right of the Labour Party, Carnegie Community Trust.

Contrary to what they were saying previously, the Trust have now disclosed that they will accept the gym Lambeth have been proposing. This might be an indication that Lambeth are nearing a definite commitment to go ahead with the gym and that we should therefore be intensifying our campaign against it.

The basement excavation currently being carried out was decided on long before the gym proposal and it is not deep enough for activities which involve jumping or participants raising their hands above their heads. GLL, the company which would run the gym, say that they would need to have "Body Pump" and other vigorous group exercise classes on the ground floor. The Consulting Engineers appointed by Lambeth advise that, if there is to be gym use on the ground floor, the floor will need to be strengthened and damping inserted to contain vibration.

Over the past few years, the Friends have repeatedly asked Lambeth and the Trust's predecessors what steps would be taken to reduce vibration but no commitment to do anything in this respect has ever been made. When granting Planning Permission for the gym Lambeth's Planning Committee avoided making a decision on the uses of the ground floor by delegating this for future decision by a Council officer.

Although there would be a library service of some kind on the ground floor, we appear to be heading towards a situation where this would be disrupted by bouncing of the floor whenever a gym class was in progress. There would also be a risk of damage to the building, especially the internal glazing, and eventually of the floor collapsing. We must put a stop to this nonsense.

After lavishing money on keeping Carnegie Library closed for a year and a half, Herne Hill's Councillors are now claiming credit for the future reopening of the building, including a library.

Their recent leaflet predicts reopening "around Christmas 2017 or January 2018." This does not make sense in relation to a library service. The excavation work is programmed to last from now into late April. It will be very noisy and therefore incompatible with a library. If Lambeth go ahead with the gym that would entail further months of noisy work.

As the Councillors have never done anything to support the library and they are in danger of losing the Council Election in May 2018, their concern is likely to be the Election. They may not care whether the library would be usable or not, so long as they can distribute a leaflet a few weeks before the election claiming to have reopened the library. This would not mislead those of us who take a close interest in the library but might confuse others into thinking the situation is satisfactory.

The people distributing the recent leaflet door-to-door appear to have refrained from delivering it to homes displaying posters in support of the library. From this we can reasonably infer that the leaflet is indeed intended only for the less well informed.

The Friends are grateful to everyone who has emailed the ward councillors. The councillors have not been replying to the specific matters raised in the emails but Cllr Dickson has instead been sending out a standard email on behalf of himself and the other two ward councillors. Attached here under separate headings are corrections to some of the misinformation it contains.

In brief:

• Lambeth have signed a contract for £1.25 million to excavate the basement for a gym: Forcia contract.
  This is only the first stage of the work, the next depends on financing from GLL, which has not yet been agreed. The total cost is estimated at £3 million. The first stage is estimated to take 7 months.

  Lambeth have stated that no rent will be paid by the gym to support the library until 2023: letter from Lambeth, 31st March 2017.

• Lambeth propose to transfer the Carnegie to the 'Carnegie Community Trust' (CCT), a small group of self-appointed individuals without widespread community support. The CCT also has plans for major redevelopment work, of up to £5 million (but how this will be paid for is unknown): asset transfer assessment.
  Lambeth rejected the bid for the asset transfer by the Carnegie Library Association (CLA), formed by the Friends of Carnegie Library and the library user groups, with elected trustees, and which is accountable to over 300 members.

  Lambeth confirm in the asset transfer document that the Carnegie will become a "neighbourhood library service, ... staffed for approximately two hours per day ... consist of self-service facilities providing residents with access to a limited supply of books available for lending and drop off."

We are circulating more detail on all of this in our current bulletin.

There is a public meeting with DefendThe10 at St Saviour's church, Herne Hill Road,
6.30 for 7pm, Thurs August 17, in advance of the start of work on 1st September,
to give residents adequate time to discuss and agree on
what concerns them and
what THEY want.

Minutes from the most recent community liaison group meeting with Lambeth are
here

The Friends of Carnegie Library will fight on. We will be intensifying the campaign to get the library back for local people, including for the community groups who used it before Lambeth closed the library in March last year. If you aren’t already a member, please join us via the website or by post.