Above is a photo of one of the two protest demos last week, at the pedestrian crossing on Beckenham Road outside the library, against the demolition of the library building and moving the library to Beckenham Halls. Virtually all vehicles passing tooted their support, including bus drivers and lorry drivers. We hope local people didn’t mind the noise too much for just an hour!
At the meeting of LB Bromley’s Executive Committee on Wednesday evening (27th), there was a tremendous turnout of local people – every seat taken, people standing and sitting on the steps. The Committee was left in no doubt that the people of Beckenham do not approve of these plans.
There were questions from the public on the lack of consultation before going ahead to spend £70,000 on a feasibility study, and also on why there was no impact assessment of the effects of users of the public halls, who would lose two out of three available rooms.
Of course, the Committee voted to commission the feasibility study at a cost of £70,000. But there were commitments that the move would not go ahead unless the new facilities at Beckenham Halls would be both bigger and better than the current building. We have measured both spaces and it seems to us that the two rooms in the Halls that are identified for use as the library are only one third of the size of the current library.
We were told that the proposed flats would be 50% affordable – and after the laughter had died down at the use of the word affordable, we were told that they would be genuinely “social housing” not just for sale at 80% of Beckenham market prices. It was also said that the images of the proposed flats were simply graphic examples and that the design would be put out to architectural competition. But all that will obviously become clear only if the proposals are pursued and the developer’s plans conform. Councillor Morgan’s report to the committee will be reproduced in full in the minutes of the meeting in due course, which will be available on the council’s website (under 27 November Executive Committee). We will look carefully to ensure all the commitments made during the debate are fully recorded.