At the end of June the Council closed Jesmond Library - almost exactly 50 years after it opened. The closure had been strongly opposed by many residents, who see the Library as an important local resource and just the sort of public amenity which needs to be kept open.
Since Christmas a group of residents have been working on a plan to run the library by using volunteers. This will be difficult however. Operating the Library incurs significant costs and, unlike Jesmond Pool, which has been managed successfully for many years by a group of residents, the Library has no obvious income stream.
Councillors Breakey and Pagan are both directors of Friends of Jesmond Library, the charitable company which has been set up by the group.
Catherine Pagan said "There has been an excellent response from residents to our appeal to commit £20 a year to keep the Library going. We have also had many one-off donations and offers from potential volunteers. In addition we have around 15 members of the Friends Committee who have been working very hard to try to ensure that we can re-open later this year."
Peter Breakey added: "We have received a very generous donation from the Catherine Cookson Trust which will allow us to purchase a library management system and some new computers. We are also making plans to try to generate more income from the Library by providing courses, talks, performances etc. “ “We are not quite there yet, but we are well on the way to re-opening. If we succeed, the next challenge will be to ensure that we can keep the Library open in the longer term by providing the sort of services which people will value and want to support.”
