Library centre regeneration plan announced

http://www.brent.gov.uk/regeneration.nsf/Willesden%20Green%20Library/LBB-343

"We are pressing on with plans to redevelop Willesden Green Library Centre and regenerate Willesden High Road."

Notes

Those two projects are completely unrelated. The latter comprises the spending of £500,000 disbursed by the mayor of London. The former is a planned project to demolish the library centre and put up a new building funded by donating the car park to some preferred builder.

In the past few years, over £600,000 has been spent refurbishing the library centre, including money from the Heritage Lottery fund and the cost of moving the Brent Museum out of another juicy location for builder deals to its present home.

This part of the borough is Willesden, not Willesden Green. Willesden Green is approximately the area around the underground station. Willesden is centred approximately where the library centre now stands. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

Brent borough council swallowed up the historic Willesden borough council which stretched out as far as Harlesden where the "Wilesdune" ancient pilgrimage site and "black madonna" are. I moved to a house not far from the library centre nearly twenty years ago and the former occupant corrected me then as to the name of the area, when I made the same mistake.

Why didn't they do it right first time, if the present building is so terrible? Actually it seems a very good facility complete with car park. They have been systematically running it down, letting it fall into dereliction and (revealingly) making it extremely inconvenient and hazardous to use the car park.

We will want to see complete detailed records for all staffing, fees, and expenses involved in this new project. I want to know if any councillors are receiving any benefits in kind or any consultancy or other perks from the preferred builders. Have they got relatives there? They should know that if there is any corruption it will be found and they will be on their way to our other local (not very modern) community centre that goes by the historic name of Wormwood Scrubs.

Steve