All Souls College will have to release information about the sale of the Kensal Rise Library building, in Willesden, London, to the private company Platinum Land Limited.
The library, owned originally by All Souls and operated by Brent Council, was shut down in 2011. Since then, there has been controversy over what was to become of the building. Whilst the Friends of Kensal Rise Library (FKRL) want the building, or at least a part of it, to be retained for community use as a library, it has been revealed, through a planning application to the council, that Platinum Land Limited plans to convert the building into flats.
The College had previously rejected a Freedom of Information request, submitted by Margaret Bailey, chair of FKRL, and Meg Howarth, a campaigner on behalf of the library. Howarth then took the request to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), an independent body established to uphold information rights in the public interest.
She told Cherwell that the request to the ICO was submitted, “Not only because the building is an Asset of Community Value and the public have a right to know about the disposal of the assets they value, but also because public bodies and charities, such as the college, should not have financial arrangements that need to be hidden from public scrutiny.”
She added, “It is important for campaigners to know what the backroom shenanigans of the deal were.”
The new planning terms for the library site compel PLL to provide a rent-free area for community use.The developer has offered three quarters of the ground floor for this purpose.
Members of FKRL have expressed disappointment at the result. Margaret Bailey, writing on the campaign’s website, said, “The amount of space is not of FKRL’s choosing. However, the FKRL’s Trustees agreed to accept it rather than jeopardise the chance of no space at all for a library and a community area – sadly, a real, potential outcome”.
An All Souls spokesman reiterated the lengths and efforts the college had gone to ensure that some space was retained as a library for community use, whilst being under no obligation to do so, and expressed hope that the release of these documents and subsequent approval by the Planning Committee would spell the end of this ongoing issue. He said, “The College will be happy to supply the documents in accordance with the ICO mandate by the deadline of the 8th of April”.
