Council Backs Plans For Three Closed Libraries.

Havering Council has backed in-principle plans for three closed libraries across the borough, months after they were controversially shuttered, writes local democracy reporter Sebastian Mann.

The libraries in Gidea Park, South Hornchurch and Harold Wood were shut down in April, as part of a cost-saving scheme.

Ahead of a cabinet meeting this week, Councillor Graham Williamson the cabinet member for regeneration said the plans “aim to balance financial responsibility with the need to deliver services and facilities that benefit our residents”.

Gidea Park is now slated to be demolished and redeveloped into a centre for six children with disabilities, on the same road as the proposed Balgores School for children with special educational needs (SEND). Early plans are expected to be brought forward in January.

Meanwhile, the council is considering proposals from local charity the Harold Wood Foundation to rent the Harold Wood library, which has been an asset of community value under the Localism Act 2011. The ultimate aim, however, is to sell off the site for housing at some point in the future.

South Hornchurch will be sold and eventually either redeveloped or repurposed, and the council is weighing up whether it will be demolished first.

Top councillors approved the plans in principle at a meeting on Wednesday 10th November.

Demolishing the two libraries and approving future planning permission will cost around £230,000, the council says £110,000 for South Hornchurch and £120,000 for Gidea Park. Havering will need to foot the bill, but has yet to determine whether the money will come from its capital reserves or revenue.

Conservative group leader Councillor Michael White said the council should not move at all ahead until business cases had been put forward. In response, Cllr Williamson said that backing the plans did not mean the council was committing to demolishing the buildings.

Councillor Keith Prince, who now sits as the only Reform councillor in the borough, criticised the scheme as “putting the cart before the horse”.

He called the report “incomplete,” with “grey proposals,” and said “nothing is really that firm” at the current stage.

Council leader Ray Morgon said the decisions made at the meeting were “not necessarily final, final decisions” as certain things would “need to be dealt with beforehand”.

“We need to make sure there is the right business case providing we’ll get the appropriate value from [South Hornchurch],” he added.

The cabinet voted to close the three libraries in February, in a bid to save the council around £300,000 a year and avoid around £850,000 in repairs.

The move was heavily criticised by opposition councillors and local campaigners, who said it would harm communities and young families.

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