Following last month's announcement that Alderley Edge Library is under threat from closure the Parish Council are working to save this facility for the community.
Cheshire East Council is considering closing the three smallest libraries in the borough, which includes Alderley Edge, Disley and Prestbury, in order to save £150,000 a year.
Councillor Craig Browne has had several meetings with officers from Cheshire East Council and Cllr Liz Wardlaw, Interim Deputy Leader and responsible for Health, and has managed to obtained a breakdown of the costs that the library is currently occurring which includes £48,000 per year for staffing and £24,000 for running costs - £7,500 of which is business rates, £5409 for emergency building repair and £4823 for the cleaning contract.
Speaking at the Parish Council meeting on Monday, 11th December, Councillor Browne said "A number of residents have contacted me with a view to joining a group of volunteers to help run the library going forward and one of the things Cheshire East have said is that if a community group comes forward with a proposal to help staff the library going forward then that might be something that they would look at favourably but we would still need to find some level of financing to help with ongoing running costs. So I have a further meeting later this week with some representatives from the Edge Association and some local residents to see whether there is a way that we can realistically progress that.
"I think that finding a group of volunteers might not be so difficult but finding some further finance going forward, which would be an annual commitment, might be more difficult but as things stand at the moment I am going to explore those options."
Councillor Mike Dudley-Jones said "I went in the other day when there was a big gathering of parents and children doing one of their sessions. They felt quite strongly and there was quite a gathering (pictured above)."
Councillor Rachael Grantham commented "I was really surprised to see how many group and events are run at the library, many many people and different groups use it so I am sure we can get enough people behind it on the volunteer side of things, it's just the finance that we need to work at."
Mike Dudley-Jones added "I find it staggering that we're looking at three libraries that are trying to get rid of a cost of £150,000 when you at some of the things that go on at Cheshire East it is just staggering."
When discussing what would happen to the space, Councillor Geoff Hall confirmed that there is a convenant in place which restricts the use of that building "for any purpose other than a public lending library and associated Cheshire County Council uses" until 2050.
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
A Public Library is (by any estimation) a fundamental entitlement of the people.
That CE Council can even consider the closure of our Library, whilst spending vast amounts of OUR money on mismanagement / pay-offs / settlements / investigations etc etc is nothing short of a disgraceful dereliction of duty.
I feel strongly that our local MP (Esther McVey) should take this matter up on behalf of the people of Tatton and I would urge others to join me in writing to her to request that she does so......... mailto:
I wholly endorse your comments and those made by Alan and Tregony.
With regard to your comments about the Festival Hall, you use the word 'overspend' when referring to the final cost of the rebuild/refurbishment which somehow implies that the current Parish Council is in some way at fault?
I hope that you meant the line to read 'We can under-budget by 53%....' as that is clearly what happened before we, as the current Parish Council, came into office in May 2015 - and then had to rectify the huge shortfall our predecessors left us to manage - which we have now done over the past two and a half years.
I feel that it is important to make this point as it is possible that others reading this 'thread' might not have had the opportunity of reading the full report on the Festival Hall costs and the dire situation the current Parish Council inherited in May 2015.
Thank you very much for your offer of help. You are absolutely right and the fact that local people are willing to give freely of their time as a demonstration of their commitment to keeping the library open, is the strongest possible message they could send to Cheshire East. Could I ask you to drop me an email () please, so that I can take a note of your contact details and keep you in the loop with developments going forward?
Thank you, again.
Kind regards,
Craig