Many of you woke up this morning to hear the news that, in the light of major cuts to Manchester City Council's funding from central government, MCC have recommended in their proposed budget for 2013/14 that Levenshulme Baths and Library be shut as soon as possible this year. Sense of deja vu, anyone?
As you may recall (I recall it, I went on the radio! I had to get up at 6!), the last time this was threatened the people of Levenshulme banded together and protested with all their might (led by a fantastic group of community organisers) and got the decision overturned with the intention that both would stay open until a new "Joint Service Centre" could be developed to provide the services currently housed in the baths and the library (you may have seen the consultation surveys about this online over the last year or so).
The new recommendations are as follows:
To invest and provide a new Levenshulme Leisure Centre (which will include a library offer) to replace the existing Levenshulme pools which are no longer considered fit for purpose.
This will be funded from the Council’s Capital Programme and from savings made from closing the current centre in 2013. It is proposed that the new facility is provided within the District Centre. Detailed plans will be brought back to a future meeting of the Executive as soon as possible. It is intended that the new facility will be operational by spring 2015.
Service users from Levenshulme will temporarily be facilitated to utilise the Manchester Aquatics Centre and Wright Robinson until the new centre is developed.
It is proposed to introduce a City wide library strategy to be delivered from the refurbished Central Library and 13 neighbourhood libraries. The remaining 6 libraries (Burnage, Fallowfield, Levenshulme, Miles Platting, New Moston , Northenden) would be decommissioned with revenue funding withdrawn and the service with outreach libraries or community book collections established in line with the successful models developed at Clayton and Rackhouse.
Action
As of now there are two events planned as I know of, I will update this post with other information about any formal working groups or similar formed.
As you may recall (I recall it, I went on the radio! I had to get up at 6!), the last time this was threatened the people of Levenshulme banded together and protested with all their might (led by a fantastic group of community organisers) and got the decision overturned with the intention that both would stay open until a new "Joint Service Centre" could be developed to provide the services currently housed in the baths and the library (you may have seen the consultation surveys about this online over the last year or so).
The new recommendations are as follows:
To invest and provide a new Levenshulme Leisure Centre (which will include a library offer) to replace the existing Levenshulme pools which are no longer considered fit for purpose.
This will be funded from the Council’s Capital Programme and from savings made from closing the current centre in 2013. It is proposed that the new facility is provided within the District Centre. Detailed plans will be brought back to a future meeting of the Executive as soon as possible. It is intended that the new facility will be operational by spring 2015.
Service users from Levenshulme will temporarily be facilitated to utilise the Manchester Aquatics Centre and Wright Robinson until the new centre is developed.
It is proposed to introduce a City wide library strategy to be delivered from the refurbished Central Library and 13 neighbourhood libraries. The remaining 6 libraries (Burnage, Fallowfield, Levenshulme, Miles Platting, New Moston , Northenden) would be decommissioned with revenue funding withdrawn and the service with outreach libraries or community book collections established in line with the successful models developed at Clayton and Rackhouse.
Action
As of now there are two events planned as I know of, I will update this post with other information about any formal working groups or similar formed.
- Protest - Today (16th January), 5.30pm, Levenshulme Baths
- Public Meeting - Friday (18th January), 5.30pm, Levenshulme Inspire.
1 comment:
Hi All flyers which cover baths and library can be downloaded from save levenshulme swimming pool facebook group or see www.savelevybaths.co.uk
The fight is not just about the baths this time!
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