Campaigners opposed to the decision to lease North Kensington Library to a private prep school have succeeded in listing the building as an Asset of Community Value (ACV).

They say the listing jeopardises the council’s plans to build a new library nearby and allow the current building, in Ladbroke Grove, to be leased to Notting Hill Prep School on a 25-year deal.

The local authority say this is not the case and that their proposals will continue, but Friends of North Kensington Library (FNKL) intend to challenge this.

The council has entered planning permission to build a new library and leisure centre on existing youth centre buildings 50 metres away in Lancaster Road, saying it will be bigger and better than the existing library, which is no longer fit for purpose.

The 126-year-old North Kensington Library

However, many are upset at the decision to lease the property to a fee-paying school and argue the 126-year-old building should remain in public use, with a FNKL petition collecting nearly 600 names.

Their hopes that the ACV would stall the process was hit when K&C said the listing would only affect properties being put up for sale, which it is not planning to do.

But FNKL member Eve Wedderburn, who made the ACV nomination, says this is not the case and the council is demonstrating “incomplete knowledge of the law”.

Reacting to the ACV, the council said in a statement: “It is important to make clear that ACV status does not restrict in anyway who the owner of a building can sell it to, or at what price; nor does it place any restriction on what an owner can do with the property.

An artist’s impression of the proposed new building from Lancaster Road

“The ACV rules are there simply to ensure the community has a chance to put together a bid should the property come to the market.

“But as the campaigners know perfectly well, the old library won’t be coming to the market. That’s because its future was settled many months ago when, after prolonged and intense public debate, the building was leased to a nearby prep school for 25 years.”

Watch Public not Private protesters occupy a K&C Council meeting

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But Ms Wedderburn said leasing a property also fell into this category. She said: “The council is obliged to give a moratorium period in which the community has the opportunity to put forward an alternative bid.

“We will be challenging.”

Placards used during the demonstration in 2016

Anger at the decision to lease the library building culminated in a rally which saw protesters occupying a K&C council meeting in June.

K&C say such deals during an age of austerity, like the one made with Notting Hill Prep School, have prevented swingeing cuts to residents’ services.

The statement continued: “It should be remembered that the old building is not becoming the corporate headquarters of a hedge fund. It is becoming a school, places at which are in great demand locally from a group of parents whom we also serve.

“So our residents are getting a wonderful new library, an old building still in overall Council ownership but earning a large new income to support vital services, and new prep school places that help to meet demand from families living in the local community.

The Green's Sian Berry is opposed to K&C plans for the library and visited in April last year

“We believe this is a great deal for Kensington and Chelsea .”

The council hope the matter will be discussed at a planning meeting in March.

If granted planning permission, construction of the new building should start during summer 2017, with the new library opening by 2020.

The current library would remain open until the new facility is ready for use.

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