Create a blog post subtitle that summarizes your post in a few short, punchy sentences and entices your audience to continue reading.
The petition set up by Hurst Park Estate Residents’ Association asking Cambridgeshire County Council to halt the sale of the Milton Road Library immediately has today passed 1,000 signatures. HPERA is spearheading the campaign to pause the proposed sale of the recently reopened Milton Road Library so that options to safeguard its future as a community asset can be explored.
The new building was developed by This Land Ltd, a company set up by the County Council, which is its sole shareholder and 'controlling entity'. Now residents have discovered that the library has only a 25-year lease, of which 2 years have already expired, and therefore the library could be homeless in just 23 years, especially if the building is sold to a private entity.
Andrew Milbourn, chair of HPERA, said: “We fear that the direction of travel is towards less and less secure forms of tenure for the library building. In just a few years, the library has gone from secure council ownership, to ownership by a council owned company. Now there is an imminent threat of ownership by a private entity which we think is less secure again. We think it is reasonable to fear that things could get even worse in the future given how much things have changed in a short time. We want the County Council’s new administration to immediately pause the sale of the building so that alternatives that will secure the library’s future for our community can be explored.”
The petition can be found here. HPERA asks anyone who is concerned about the sale to sign it and to write to their councillors.