Forum topic: Temporary home planned for Palmers Green Library

Enfield Council is planning to relocate Palmers Green Library to a prefabricated building to be erected on the southern side of the Lodge Drive car park - it would be close to the rear of the Westlake's hardware shop and near one of the entrances to St Anne's High School.

The Council submitted a planning application (P13-00552PLA) for the single-storey temporary building on 28th February and it will go before the Planning Committee on 23rd April (for details, see this document).  The documentation makes no reference to a date for moving the Library to the car park, but does stipulate that the temporary buildings should be removed by 25th April 2015.  It can therefore be inferred that the Council expects that refurbishment of the permanent library in Broomfield Lane will be completed within the next two years.

Refurbishment of the Broomfield Lane library forms part of the redevelopment scheme for the site of the former Southgate Town Hall in Green Lanes.  The Council has in recent months been looking for a developer to implement its scheme to refurbish the library, build some additional community facilities (possibly including a health centre), convert the Town Hall building into flats and construct new housing at the rear and side of the Town Hall - see this planning brief for more details.  This scheme has met with a significant amount of opposition from campaigners and members of the public who do not wish to see the interior of the building remodelled and converted to private residential use.

This whole site is also addressed as part of the North Circular Area Action Plan

On the assumption that library refurbishment will have been completed in two years, this suggests that handover to a contractor is now not far off.  There will be an opportunity to discover more at the Local Forum for Bowes, Palmers Green and Southgate Green wards, to be held on Tuesday 16th April.