East Sussex County Council has won credit today (September 18) with regard to community liaison over the continuing issue of the closure of Pevensey Bay Library.
The library, which has been closed since early January has become a talking point in the Bay with a number of residents becoming increasingly angry that nine months have elapsed since services were available.
The much loved and utilised service is a social hub in the Bay, as well as being a well resourced research, educational and leisure facility.
The staff also have been praised for their knowledge and ability to work with local people and the vast number of enquiries that they field so well.
In spite of assurances by East Sussex County Council that the facility would return, the absence of the facility over such a long period of time, has led to a fear amongst some local people that it is unlikely to return.
The temporary facility offered at St. Wilfrid’s Church since September appears with some people not to have helped the situation and has been labelled in some quarters ‘a PR exercise’.
A critical issue appears to have been the confusion over flooding issues and the separate but linked question of legal issues.
The nature of the problem has never been made completely clear and some of the explanations seem at certain points to have emphasised one question over the other without the necessary clarity to enable people to make their own judgements over the matter.
The cast iron pledge offered by the County Council to the communities concerned that ‘the library will return’, given that we have now reached the autumn of 2015, with the library closed since january, has been questioned by a number of residents and key stakeholders.
Today (September 18), East Sussex County Council has now offered a full response to the situation which includes valuable information about the work being done by the landlord’s appointed surveyors and the County Council property team.
This information equips local people with the information required to enable them to judge what is happening.
Clearly there are developments and clearly we will be seeing the library return.
It is to the credit of East Sussex County Council that it is keeping the local community informed about the precise stage that discussions have reached.
Local authorities that keep communities informed in transparent, honest and detailed ways win the trust of the people that they serve.
It is to be hoped that we will be seeing the return of the library in the foreseeable future.
East Sussex County Council deserves credit for the way in which it is responding to the community over the issue of the continued closure of Pevensey Bay Library.
Library issue, Pevensey Bay: East Sussex County Council statement: 18 September 2015
“We appreciate the frustration caused by the recent issues relating to Pevensey Bay Library and we continue to work with the building’s owner to find a solution. There is an underlying damp condition that needs to be rectified. To this end the landlord’s appointed surveyors and the County Council property team have been discussing the impact of the problem and ways to address it. The landlord has agreed to carry out an intrusive building survey and, after the results of this are known we should be in a better place to understand what needs to be done before we can return to the library. It has taken time to get to this stage but it is important that the issues are resolved satisfactorily.
“In the meantime library staff have been working really hard to find alternative premises in order to deliver a temporary service. St Wilfrid’s stepped in to help when other avenues became unavailable. We are very grateful for the tremendous generosity shown by St Wilfrid’s who have warmly welcomed the library, both staff and customers. Of course this is not a replacement library and it is not intended to be. With any temporary facility we are limited in the services we can offer although we have received messages of thanks from customers who appreciate what we are trying to do. Residents can, however, still access a full range of services at nearby Eastbourne Library or online.
“The library service would like to thank the people of Pevensey Bay for their continued support and will continue to keep residents of further updates.”
