Published: 24 November 2011
by GEORGIA GRAHAM and DAN CARRIER

A £35,000 donation has boosted a fundraising appeal to keep a library open.

Groups aiming to prevent the closure of Chalk Farm Library have raised more than £60,000 in a week.

Three libraries in Camden – the others are Belsize and Heath branches – will no longer be run by the council from next year under a cost-cutting drive.

Volunteer groups hoping to run the libraries have been asked to come up with business plans.

The deadline to hand over bids for review by the Town Hall is the end of November.

Donations have been coming in thick and fast in support of Primrose Hill Community Association’s bid to save Chalk Farm Library.

The steering group has received “around ten” four-figure pledges as well as the £35,000 from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

One pensioner sent in a cheque with a note attached explaining the money amounted to a winter fuel allowance that was not needed.

Dick Bird, of Chalcot Road, who is on the library committee, said: “It is amazing.

It is a great push for the campaign and the response has been really good. But now is the time we really need the big hitters to come to the party.”

Meanwhile, Belsize Library, in Antrim Grove, could be saved by the intervention of The Winch community centre in Swiss Cottage – though no plans have yet been finalised.

The Winch chief executive Paul Perkins says the plan would see the library stay open – partially paid for by offering other, unspecified services. 

He said: “The Winch are working with people who live in the area and the Friends of Belsize Library group to put together an expression of interest.”

He added that the centre would help form a new management committee with volunteers to find a way of keeping the library open – but The Winch would not directly take it over.

“We are looking at forming a new organisation in its own right, with its own board and protocols, with The Winch supporting this process,” he said. “We will not take over the library, but would like to help a new body do so.”

The Heath branch, in Keats Grove, looks likely to be run by a new charity, The Phoenix Group, formed by library users, members of the library’s Friends group and the Heath and Hampstead Society. It has been in talks with the City of London, which owns the library building.

A City of London spokesman said: “This development provides an exciting opportunity to extend the range of facilities and activities at Keats House. It would provide better environments to encourage people to read, write and develop an interest in English literature.”

But the City has confirmed it will not offer any funding. It added: “The City of London does not have funds to do this, nor sees it as its role to run a library service outside its boundaries.”

The Town Hall is due to announce on December 20 whether the three branches will be taken over by the groups.