Earlier in the year, the Labour Council tried to close some of our Libraries in Ealing North, including Northolt Leisure Centre Library and Perivale Library.
After a successful campaing by residents, supported by the Conservative Councillors and Conservative volunteers, where over 8,000 residents signed various petitions to save their local libraries,Labour backed down.
The libraries would not be closed after all. Earlier this month, the council announced that the £2m they thought had been lost during the financial crisis in 2008, would after all be returned to the council's coffers.
This was money that had been invested in an Iceland Bank to get a better return for Council Taxpayers. The banking system in Iceland collapsed, and Labour wrote this money off at the first opportunity against our advice.
As we expected, this money will be returned to the Council and Labour have agreed to invest £400,000 of this in Perivale Library. Local Cllr for Perivale, Cllr Justin Anderson welcomed the news, "Residents fought hard for their Library and deserve this investment".
There is no news about Northolt Leisure centre Library, even though we were promised some by December. Cllr Eileen Harris, has promised to keep fighting for this Library, "over 600 residents signed my petition to save Northolt Leisure centre Library, so they are entitled to know what's going on here".
Rest assured, both Justin and Eileen will continue to fight for their residents.