A GROUP determined to offer a library service to the community is stepping up efforts to raise vital funds.

The Friends of Barham Library have put in a bid to Brent Council to rent space at the historic building, in Sudbury, a year after it was closed by the Labour-run local authority.

Liberal Democrat councillor and campaign member, Paul Lorber, estimates the group needs £25,000 a year to keep a library service running and it is desperately trying to raise the funds.

So far they have made £1,500 from events such as sponsored walks in Fryent Park.

Mr Lorber said: “We welcome people to come and support the campaign and help us raise funds.

“People are very welcome to make donations or to bring books and DVDs to the library, which we can sell for extra funds or put in the libraries. We want to get into Barham Park to make sure there is a community service for local residents.”

Mr Lorber and other volunteers run a thriving pop-up library in Wembley High Road, which attracted many families and children over the summer holidays, but they are hoping for a more permanent solution.

The Friends met the October 1 deadline for the proposal, but members are concerned about costly repairs needed at the building.

Mr Lorber said: “Repairs are needed and in a report to the council it was estimated that £100,000 worth of external repairs and £60,000 of internal work was needed.”

The building has been used by the council’s parks department for offices and is still used as a children’s centre and meeting place for a veterans organisation.

Brent Council said no fixed amount had been set for the rent but it will be ‘subject to bids received and assessment of viability and prospective tenant proposals’.

The council has received a number of bids and a report will be produced on a suitable tenant.

A spokesman for the council said: “Repairs are subject to negotiation with the preferred bidder. However external works are intended to be done subject to the relevant Brent Council executive committee and trustee approvals. Internal repairs will be the tenant’s responsibility.”

? SATURDAY will mark one year since the closure of the six libraries by Brent Council.

Brent SOS (Save Our Seven) Libraries campaign will hold a Relay of Light and Learning from library to library, starting in Kensal Rise, then to Willesden Green, Cricklewood, Neasden, Tokyngton and Barham volunteer library, in Wembley High Road, in the morning. It will then continue to Barham Library and Preston Library culminating in a cultural party at the Windermere Pub, Windermere Avenue, Wembley.

The relay will leave Kensal Rise, Bathurst Gardens, at 11am and will arrive in High Road, Wembley, at 1.45pm after stopping for an event at each library along the way.

It will then travel to Barham Park, at 4pm and arrive at the pub at 6pm for a raffle and refreshments.

A marathon reading of Alice in Wonderland will take place at 235 Preston Road, near the closed library, from 2pm.