Published: 02 February 2012
by DAN CARRIER

BELSIZE and Heath library branches will no longer be under council control at the end of March, the Town Hall confirmed yesterday (Wednesday).

In a deal Camden says is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom, two of the three libraries forced to go it alone have had bids to be managed by com­munity groups accepted.

From April, the Heath Library will be renamed Keats Community Library, managed by Phoenix Group in conjunction with the City of London, and Belsize Library will be managed by The Winch, the community centre in Swiss Cottage.

The third library cast adrift from Town Hall control, Chalk Farm branch in Sharpleshall Street, has had its bid put on ice for a fortnight while council officers number crunch the financial plans.

The New Journal understands the delay is due to a request for a longer lease than the three years on offer.

Friends of Chalk Farm Library’s Dick Bird said he did not wish to comment on the background to the delay until further talks were held with the Town Hall.

But Friends of Heath Library’s Lee Montague said that, while lending books would still be at the heart of the library in Keats Grove, it would offer new services and events, drawing on its popular Wednesday night talks where writers address sell-out audiences.

He said: “We are very pleased to have our bid accepted and we plan to build on the work we have been doing here for many years.”

The City, which manages Hampstead Heath, is keen to use the site to promote poetry and literature, using next-door Keats House as a starting point.

Mr Montague added: “We have created a happy partnership, and from our side there are a host of ideas we are now working on.”

The library has re­ceived a boost with scores of new books signed by authors being donated in the run-up to the hand­over.

Previous speakers at the library, such as John Le Carré, Julian Fellowes and Penelope Lively, have given copies of their complete works.

Well-known Hampstead literary figures are to be patrons, including television presenter Melvyn Bragg, actor Simon Callow, Python star Michael Palin, Janet Suzman, authors Alan Hollinghurst, Margaret Drabble, Deborah Moggach and Anthony Horowitz and comed­ian David Baddiel.  

Stephen Bobasch, of Phoenix Group, said it hopes to establish a £250,000 endowment fund.

He added: “There will be no radical changes.

We want to evolve.”

The Town Hall has waived rent for Belsize and plans to do the same for Chalk Farm.

It has stumped up £50,000 to the libraries as a one-off grant to help ease the switch, and has guaranteed a further payment of £194,000, to be split between the three groups.

But Camden library card holders will not be able to use the former Town Hall branches and will have to sign up to them individually.

Camden has set up a book loan scheme so the libraries can continue to access book stocks, and will buy new books for them.

A new body, Camden Library Network, will link Town Hall-managed sites with academic institutions, the British Library and the new community libraries.

Labour’s leisure chief Councillor Tulip Siddiq said: “There was a lot of scepticism whether this would work or not but we have found people were adamant that they wanted to keep their libraries open.”