Library drama is the same old song and dance

What to do with the current Hove Library has come to the fore again.

Just when it looked the like this long-running page turner of a saga was about to come to an end, there was another twist in the tale.

Forget The Archers or Corrie, The Curious Incident of Closing Down Hove Library is the only soap opera in town.

If the story was put down on paper, it would give War and Peace a run for its money at the printers in terms of pagination.

With those championing the plan to relocate the service told to well and truly “Ssssshhh,”, where next?

For those who are not familiar, the current service is based in a Carnegie-funded listed building in Church Road, the heart of Hove.

Being listed means the grand Edwardian structure cannot easily be tinkered with.

It also means it’s quite expensive to run, which is particularly relevant when the public purse is being shrunk on a daily basis.

So, as part of a wider plan affecting all the libraries in the city, there was a proposal by the city’s minority Labour administration to sell the building.

The expected £1 million windfall would then be used to convert build a new library facility on the site of the current Hove Museum a few hundred yards up the road.

But, just like in that famous book about the hunt for Moby Dick, reaching the final goal is easier said than done.

To start, everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

Opposition members in the Conservative and Green groups allowed the plan to pass through various committees in the last year, with some even giving it their backing.

But, spurred on by a petition signed by more than 5,000 people, all of a sudden they realised something fishy was going on.

The blame (if we are to believe that organ of scandal Private Eye) has been lumped on to Cllr Tom Bewick.

A net spun by the unlikely allies was about to be flung over the minority Labour administration.

But rather than being caught and cooked in public, the fishes in charge at Kings House pulled the report from the policy and resources committee.

Rumour has it the plan is now locked in Davy Jones’ Locker while those responsible are hiding in the weeds at the bottom of this sea of intrigue until danger passes over.

Just like ten years ago when this topic was last discussed, the future of the library continues on its crab-like course: i.e. going sideways.

But we’ve been here before – not just ten years ago but for the last 50.

Thanks to Andy Garth at Brighton and Hove Stuff in Western Road, I’ve been made aware of similar radical plans put forward in 1962.

Back then, Hove Borough Council claimed the existing library in Church Road was “no longer capable of fulfilling the needs of the library service” due to the increase of population in the town.

A £275,000 proposal was put forward to pull down the Central Library and move the service to a new “skyscraper” to “incorporate both the library and museum” in New Church Road.

Sound familiar?

Newspaper reports from 1962 show the plan would have created a library across four floors, creating 41,920 square foot of space.

In comparison, the 2016 version of a ground floor extension would give an extra 2,690 square foot, bringing the total museum and library space to about 5,000 square foot.

So what happened to the 1960s dream?

Well as it turned out, the locals were not too happy. Then the council threw out a plan for a combined library and museum at the museum site as “it was not a suitable position for library purposes”.

The same argument continues to be made today. Which brings us back to the starting point of the saga of Hove Library rumbling on.

After six decades of debate we are still no closer to finding out if the Carnegie building will face its final chapter soon or have yet another epilogue.

For those looking for a happy ending – in fact any ending at all – it’s probably best to get your tales from somewhere else for the foreseeable future.

A cyclist

AS someone who uses all forms of transport to get from A to B, I rarely have a grumble at specific groups.

But the past week I’ve turned into a true Victor Meldrew at the sight of a number of cyclists wearing giant headphones while peddling about town.

While they may be going about their business quite happily with a soundtrack to their life booming in their ears, I’ve been a nervous wreck waiting for the inevitable accident to happen on our congested city streets.

Cyclists, for goodness sake use your head to think – not something to crack open.