CROYDON IN CRISIS: After a year’s delay, only now are ‘plans’ slowly emerging for the future of four public libraries, with no leases yet agreed on at least two sites. GENE BRODIE, education correspondent, reports
It’s been a whole year since Croydon’s failed Mayor Jason Perry confirmed his intention to close four of the borough’s public libraries.
Late opening: a year after Tory Mayor Perry confirmed he was to close Sanderstead Library, the council has still to agree a lease for alternative use for the building
So poorly considered was the £84,000 per year Tory Mayor’s “plan” that only now are details of “alternative” use schemes which he belatedly managed to cobble together beginning to emerge.
At Sanderstead, residents are about to enjoy an open day to discover more about the “alternative” use the council has in mind, from an organisation that admits that it does not yet even have a fully functioning website.
Mayor Perry’s other handover plans have so far been chaotic, attracting adverse national headlines when council contractors chucked hundreds of books into the street at another closed library site, in Broad Green, where the Asian Resource Centre of Croydon is to take over the public building.
In Shirley, the library building has been earmarked for use by Play Place Innov8 (geddit?!!), a community interest company with roots in New Addington.
Play Place is running a GoFundMe appeal to raise another £10,000 they reckon they need to move into and use the building. After a week, they have so far raised less than one-tenth of the amount they say they need.
iC has not yet seen any signs of new life at Bradmore Green Library in Old Coulsdon, although we confidently expect that between now and election day next May, there will be a tweet or Facebook video, with a breathless Mayor congratulating himself on the fine work he has done in shredding another piece of local community fabric.
There was so little work done in advance that a widespread, and reasonable, assumption was made by opposition councillors that Mayor Perry wanted to flog off the closed libraries, probably to housing developers. If any of the emerging schemes at Sanderstead, Shirley, Broad Green or Old Coulsdon fail to work out, development of the sites remains a real option.
There’s a common theme across all four libraries that the Mayor closed last year: despite piss-poor Perry’s claims at the time – and in the 12 months or so of fake “public consultations” that prefaced the closures – the council’s property experts had done nothing to secure viable alternatives in place from the date of closures in November 2024.
On-going use of the buildings was only ever an afterthought. Some established, community-based organisations say that when they expressed an interest, they were brushed aside. The £1,000 per day “interim” who was heading up the management of the council’s property portfolio recently quit Fisher’s Folly, before the arrival of government Commissioners.
Open day: but does the organisation already have its own notion of how it will operate from the public building
At each former library site, the cash-strapped council has got staffing and (most) maintenance costs off its books, handing over public property on modest, mid-term leases. But the financials involved will barely scratch the surface of the “runaway” spending at Perry’s council, with its £1.4billion debts.
At Sanderstead, the open day on September 13 has been dressed up as part of the Mayor of London’s Open House and community weekend (possibly to tap in to a source of some “free” public money?).
“We’re opening the doors to everyone to join us in a shared reimagining of how we develop the space as a community base,” says The Story Sanctuary, which describes itself as a “creative health and wellbeing hub”.
The company behind the Story Sanctuary, called The A Collective, probably through no fault of their own, hasn’t even yet been given a licence for the building from the council.
“We’re in the process of working with Croydon Council to agree a temporary licence to use the building, in advance of negotiating a full lease.” So this is hardly the epitome of a thought-through, well-considered handover.
Where the “shared reimagining” fits in for residents who still resent losing their valued public library is unclear. The range of possible uses suggested by Story Sanctuary look much like the kind of activities you might hope to find at a well-run public library. Much as Sanderstead Library once was.
The A Collective, originally named the Autistic Community Hub, was only registered as a Community Interest Company in July 2023. That’s around the same time that Mayor Perry and his council started scratching their heads, and probably other parts of their anatomy, to come up with ideas of what to do with four pieces of prime real estate.
Details so far are vague to the point of non-existent. According to The A Collective/Story Sanctuary: “Opening Autumn 2025 at the former Sanderstead Library building. Full website coming soon!” We can hardly wait…
Of the open day, they say: “Come down, explore, learn about what we hope to do and help shape our plans!
“Refreshments available.” Which is good.
“Please note: there are no accessible toilets (yet!) and the stairs are steep.” Which is not so good, especially for an organisation that will need to meet stringent accessibility requirements before it can open its doors to the public.
The A Collective describes itself as “a small neurodivergent arts non-profit, centred around creative health and wellbeing”. One of the founders, Jill Finch, actually lives in Sanderstead, the company states.
Short of cash: the new group looking to takeover Shirley Library are trying to Crowdfund their budget
“Our team is experienced working with people across all ages and identities. We plan to run a playful, intergenerational, sensory-friendly and inclusive trauma-informed programme – a gentle approach that we believe benefits everyone.”
It is perhaps important to state at this point that the organisations lined up to take over at Sanderstead and at Shirley both describe themselves as “non-profits” and CICs (ARCC, at Broad Green, is registered as both a limited company and as a charity).
Community Interest Companies are not charities.
The founder, or founders, of CICs can ensure they earn a living for their work for the organisation. It is only the surplus that the company might make, after all costs, including staff wages, that must be reinvested into the business. It is entirely possible for those running a CIC to make sure that they are paid so much that, at the end of the accounting period, there is no profit whatsoever.
But the overall sense that the council’s library handovers are all very much an afterthought from Perry’s failing administration continues when looking at this month’s announcements over the future of Shirley Library, another long-cherished public building in a Conservative-held council ward.
Perry’s pile: thousands of books were dumped outside Broad Green Library last month by contractors working for Croydon Council
Play Place Innov8 has been granted a licence from the council to occupy the library building, and they say that they “expect the 25-year lease to be finalised within the next two months”.
In an statement issued last week, they say: “Work has already begun, and over the coming months you’ll notice activity around light refurbishment and decorating.”
Play Place’s Innov8’s version of events appears a little confused over timings.
“Shirley Library was set to close,” they say. Shirley Library, together with the three other public libraries, closed in early November 2024. “In May 2025, Play Place Innov8 CIC, a Croydon not-for-profit, stepped in to save it.”
They say that they have already raised £13,000 from “fantastic local support”, including “help from businesses and volunteers with broadband, electrics, carpentry and decoration”.
Play Place Innov8 has now got out its begging bowl: “We’re not quite there yet. We still need funds for new carpets, equipment and essential refurbishment to make the library safe, welcoming and fully ready for everyone.” Hence the 10 grand crowdfund appeal.
In 2021, it cost almost £100,000 for Croydon Council to operate Shirley Library, including £70,000 to pay trained, professional librarians.
In 2025, Play Place Innov8 has laid out an aspirational range of activities, though little different from what residents of other local authorities have come to appreciate from their public libraries.
“We want to keep its traditional services — book loans, study areas and computer access — and also introduce new activities like reading groups, after-school clubs, arts and crafts, poetry, knitting and more.
“Together, we can make it a vibrant hub shaped by the people of Shirley.”
They don’t say what happens if they don’t reach their funding target. But it’s a certainty that Croydon’s cash-strapped council under failed Mayor Perry won’t be chipping in.
Read more: Booked! Mayor Perry deceives over destruction of library stock
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P-P Perry could pay for it from his ridiculous salary!
Yes, especially after all the books from Broad Green Library were thrown outside the building. Ridiculous
New 25 year lease sorted within two months? The new lease for the Community Centre in Coulsdon took three years for the council to sort out. Best of luck…
Should we do a sweep? What will happen first – a lease on Shirley Library, or signs going up in the Whitgift Centre to MP Sarah Jones’s office?
So more convenient companies emerge just as Mayor Perry has his latest half baked brainwave with how to get rid of Council assets. Of course they have no real background or history in managing such public assets and service provision, but who cares when it looks like you are doing something than the reality of making things much worse. Don’t worry there is always money for the important things like improving a path from the Sanderstead playground which from the amount of labour and plant being used looks like not leaving much change out of the odd £70,000 going spare in a location that can be relied to vote for the right Mayor.
“Play Place Innov8”? Hopefully the sportswear company whose registered tradename they’ve stolen will either not notice or are sponsoring them! They’re based in the Lake District so they might be lucky…
That photo of dumped books outside a closed down public library almost brings me to tears.
It ought to have brought Perry to resignation.
So as I read it, Play Place Innov8 have raised £13,000 for things like “broadband, electrics, carpentry and decoration” and are looking for another £10,000 so that they can “move into and use” what was Shirley Library.
Now according to a building survey commissioned by the Council (and funded by CIL), in March 2020 the cost of URGENT work needed to “prevent immediate closure of premises and/or address an immediate high risk to health and safety of occupants and/or remedy a serious breach of legislation” was estimated to be almost £12,000.
On top of that, the cost of ESSENTIAL work needed within two years (i.e. by March 2022!) to “prevent serious deterioration of the fabric or services and/or address a medium risk to the health and safety of occupants and/or remedy a less serious breach of legislation” was estimated to be over £80,000.
On top of THAT, the cost of DESIRABLE work needed within 3 – 5 years (i.e by six months ago!) to “prevent deterioration of the fabric or services and/or address a low risk to the health and safety of occupants and/or remedy a minor breach of legislation” was estimated to be almost £40,000.
Of course, I don’t know how much of the above work was carried out when the building still functioned as a public library**, but given the state of the Council’s finances I suspect very little, if any. But on the face of it (without Council help), Play Place Innov8 do seem still to have a very long way to go on the funding front, simply to make the building ‘safe’ and legislation-compliant.
** The CIL money that we were told at a meeting of Cabinet (in May 2021) had been allocated to sort out the ‘urgent’ and ‘essential’ work never materialised, because as we now know through information requests, the official(s) charged with looking after the building never requested the necessary funds (from the Infrastructure Finance Group). Now I wonder why not?
Welcome back Mr W!
I should add, that those professional surveyors of the Shirley building in 2020 MIGHT have got it all wrong, because according to the Council’s marketing brochure “Internally, the building is in a good state of repair. However, the exterior requires some repair and redecoration”. Which doesn’t sound quite so bad, does it?
The brochure does stress though that Play Place Innov8 “will need to meet all the costs of running and maintaining the building for the entire lease length”. What the brochure doesn’t tell us, is which official(s) will be responsible for monitoring/ensuring that the leaseholders are properly discharging those maintenance responsibilities.
There again, if all that is required of Play Place Innov8 is to continue the Council’s ‘as little as possible’ (i.e. next to nothing) approach to maintenance, I’m sure they’ll manage just fine. Just not sure how the building will fare, especially if the professionals were right!
Final thought, for now.
Since the article also includes what is apparently ‘in store’ for Sanderstead, I should mention that the need for similar urgent (£13.5k), essential (£115k) and desirable (£105k) maintenance work there was identified in a condition survey carried out by the same firm, also in March 2020. The Council’s marketing brochure meanwhile described this building as “is in a reasonable state of repair but would benefit from some updatng”! So not so bad either then … but really??
I’m not clear where ‘The A Collective’ are with any fundraising, but on the facts available it seems that their funding challenges are even greater than those of Play Place Innov8 in Shirley.
With regard to the lack of accessible toilets ‘(yet!)’, the copy of the distributed flyer that I’m looking at suggests that A Collective are actively ‘working on’ the addition of such facilities. But if that will be so easy (or possible), then why wasn’t it sorted when the building functioned as a public library, especially since the lack of those facilities weighed against Sanderstead ** when it came to potential closures?
** Paragraphs 6.32 of the ‘Libraries Service Review’ report to Cabinet (31 January 2024) and 6.58 of the ‘Libraries Review’ report to Cabinet (25 September 2024)
There’s surely more to uncover here. Much more!