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Letter to Sandhurst Street Library, Oadby

The Editor
The Leicester Mercury
St George Street
Leicester
LE1 9FQ

26 November 2008

Dear Sir

Sandhurst Street Library, Oadby

There has been a good deal of misinformed speculation about the future of the Sandhurst Street library in Oadby both locally in the Borough of Oadby & Wigston and in your columns. May I help to put the record straight?

• The County Council Cabinet reached a considered (and publicly minuted) decision on 28 October following proper consultation with and advice from senior officers and the District Auditor to make the old library available to the Oadby & Wigston Muslim Association ('OWMA').

• discussion on terms and conditions of any sale relating to community use are still ongoing

• funding from this site will help finance the new library (thus providing added value to the community)

• working with local groups and organisations has allowed the County Council to forge relationships with the local community and help improve the social wellbeing and community cohesion in the area

• my constituents can rest assured that no decisions have been arrived at in an underhand manner nor have any interested parties, or those who may have wished to express an interest, been excluded from consultations

• regrettably the Liberal Democrat party, a party which at least here in the House of Commons advocates religious and community tolerance, is stirring up inter-community and -faith sensitivity and concern in an effort to distract attention from a positive outcome for the local community. Whatever their intentions, the effect of their activities and rumour-mongering is reactionary and potentially inflammatory.

As I understand the matter, if the library is sold to the OWMA, a registered charity, they intend to rebuild the current building (to the same external dimensions) and construct a community centre – not just for Muslims but for the whole community.

I gather the OWMA has not even begun to raise funds from its members or elsewhere to pay for the library so we are talking about a long-term project. If a contract to buy the library is completed the purchaser will then need to get planning permission, perhaps for change of use, and certainly for any external building alterations from the Liberal Democrat Borough Council – at which point Liberal Democrat councillors can tell us whether they where they stand on the question of community cohesion. As far as my understanding goes, we should not expect anything to happen until at least next summer so there is no reason for my constituents to be alarmed or to feel that there has been a done deal.

Anyone, be they an individual, a charity or a corporate body, is entitled to express an interest in buying the library and the County Council was and is under an obligation, policed by the District Auditor, to consider every expression of interest on its merits but we do not want to see rumour and misinformation or the implicit encouragement of community dissention taking hold to the disadvantage of the Borough or my wider constituency.

As the Member of Parliament for every resident in my constituency, no matter what their colour, creed or race may be, I intend to see fairness and open debate and respect for others' diversity survive and will not countenance snide attacks on any minority for base political advantage.

Yours faithfully

Edward Garnier QC MP

Harborough, Oadby & Wigston