The Levenshulme Community Forum public meeting will take place on Friday 25th July, 19.00 at the Klondyke Club (1 Burnage Range, Levenshulme).
The meeting is about the future of our current library after the library moves to the new Arcadia building in 2015.
Other issues can be raised as well. The focus is on ideas for the library as a community facility but this is an open public meeting for all residents of Levenshulme so bring your ideas and issues along.
The new Levenshulme Library and Baths development on Stockport Road is now ready for public exhibition.
Plans for the proposed centre design will be on display in the cafe at Levenshulme Inspire from Saturday 14th June to Thursday 26th June, where there will be a chance for you to comment on the proposals. Members of the project team will also be there for you to discuss the plans, on:
There is a dedicated page on Manchester City Council’s website HERE.
Plans for the new development will be available HERE from 14th June.
This is an exciting stage in the development and close attention has been paid to ensuring that the new facilities meet all of the requirements and specifications worked out through lengthy and detailed consultation with Levenshulme residents over the past year or more. The new facilities will include:
Manchester City Council will be investing over £8,000,000 in these new facilities that will dramatically improve services in Levenshulme and serve a wide area of south Manchester.
Relocation of users of the Arcadia roller skate rink will happen in tandem with development of the new facilities. A £250,000 investment is being made separately by the Council to enhance, extend and improve facilities for Arcadia users at Ardwick.
This commitment to public services in Levenshulme by Manchester City Council at a time of austerity and struggle for many people is hugely welcome. This is also a result of the massive local campaign to save Levenshulme’s existing Baths and Library from closure which was a huge success for the people of Levenshulme. The creativity, dynamism, imagination, persistence and dedication of Levenshulme residents and careful collaboration with local councillors and the council is really showing dividends now.
Levenshulme Community Association will continue to consult with residents and work with the council to ensure the best possible outcome for the people of Levenshulme.
A press release from Manchester City Council is expected tomorrow (Friday 7th June 2014) and will be added here when available.
The next Levy Tea will be held at Levenshulme Library on Monday, 14th April, 15.30-16.45.
The next LCA meeting will take place as follows:
DATE:
Saturday 7th December
TIME:
10.00
VENUE:
Levenshulme Library
We hope people from as many groups as possible across Levenshulme will come along to raise and discuss any issues and share information.
If you have an item for the agenda please notify Jeremy Hoad, LCA Secretary (you can use the contact form on this site). Any agenda items must be received by 17.00 on Thursday 5th December.
The new programme of support will be put in place after Arts Council England approved a joint bid by Greater Manchester’s ten authorities for £45,000 of funding.
Under the Start Up Engines project, which will be managed by Manchester City Council, enterprising residents will be able to access a wide range of information through a virtual ‘Flatpack’, which will offer all the help a prospective businessperson could need to turn their ideas into reality – including how-to guides, strategy ideas, free web tools and apps.
Residents will also be offered the chance to use their libraries to meet up and exchange ideas, either by using available meeting spaces or virtually, through the creation of online enterprise communities.
A programme of 50 events is planned, which will bring top business brains to Greater Manchester to act as role models for the next generation, as well as offering practical help on the nuts and bolts of getting your business off the ground.
Read the full announcement HERE
The Levenshulme reading/book group meets on the last Wednesday of every month at Levenshulme library.
Time: 18.15 to 19:45
It Is a social group where a book is chosen each month and then discussed the following month.
The next meeting is Wednesday 25th September and the book that will be discussed is ‘Hard Times’ by Charles Dickens.
Do come along for a cuppa and a chat about books.
There will be a meeting of the Levenshulme Community Association as follows:
DATE: Saturday 21st September 2013
TIME: 10.30-12.30
PLACE: Levenshulme Libary, Cromwell Grove, M19 3QE
NOTE: The meeting is earlier than usual because of the current opening hours of the library.
Newspaper reports today confirm the suspension of Amanda Thain (Head, Levenshulme High Schools for Girls) by the Governing Body of the school. This follows an Ofsted inspection earlier this year which resulted in the appointment of Patsy Kane (Head, Whalley Range High School) as Executive Head at the school.
There is concern at what impact this will have on plans for Levenshulme Library and LHS taking on the building, running the library and developing a school facility for pupils until the new library opens in 2015. To date no work has been undertaken regarding the conversion of the library for use by the school.
Assurances had been provided by Cllr Rosa Battle (Executive Member for Culture and Leisure) that the plans for Levenshulme Library were unaffected following the appointment of Patsy Kane as Executive Head at LHS after an Ofsted inspection and report in July.
Jeremy Hoad (Levenshulme Community Association Secretary and Chair of the Friends’ of Levenshulme Library) said: “It is not wise to jump to conclusions based on newspaper reports but it is wise to determine progress on the Library plans and ongoing commitment to these plans in light of the different circumstances at the school now. I am attempting to clarify the situation with Neil MacInness (Head of Libraries), Rosa Battle and Levenshulme and Gorton South Councillors.”
Further updates will be provided as the situation becomes clearer.
Read the Manchester Evening News article HERE
Read the Daily Mail article HERE
Do you have news about something going on in Levenshulme?
Are you organising an event?
Do you run or support a community organisation?
Please send us your news, information, event or details of your organisation and we’d love to add you to the Levenshulme Community Association website or publicise what you are doing.
Get in touch and share what you know about Levenshulme!
Contact the LCA HERE
Thanks.
Jeremy Hoad (LCA Secretary)
You may wish to consider commenting on or objecting to this application as it could compromise the presence, impact, accessibility and wider benefits to Levenshulme of the new £6.5m pools, gym, library and community facilities that will be built on the area immediately behind this site.
We need to maximise the benefits and presence of our marvellous new facilities for the benefit of all Levenshulme residents and visitors.
The applicants who submitted the previous application for a supermarket on the site of the Church Inn (874 Stockport Road) which was not approved, have now submitted a new application which will be considered by Manchester Council’s Planning Committee this Thursday 15 August 2013.
The meeting will be held in Manchester Town Hall starting at 14.00.
The new application is for the construction of 4 shops units with storage space on the 1st floor.
The Planning Department considers that this application meets the Council’s planning requirements and are recommending that the application be approved. The meeting is open to members of the public to attend and it is usual for the Chair to call someone to speak for and against each application.
Full details of the application can be found at the Council’s website through the Public Access Planning System. Enter the reference number in the search box to access the application. The application reference number is:
102683/FO/2013/N2
If you register with the Planning System you can leave a comment on the application.
Levenshulme people fought to save our library and we will have a new library in 2015 as well as a lifelong learning centre and support facility for pupils run by Levenshulme High School in the current building.
An amazing future for libraries and learning in Levenshulme.
Interesting article in The Guardian yesterday, “A library is not just about books: it’s also a place for the vulnerable”, available HERE.
The next community meeting to discuss the multi-million pound redevelopment of facilities in Levenshulme will take place on Friday 26th July at 19.00 in Inspire on Stockport Road.
This meeting will be preceded by a ‘planning challenge’ meeting (15.00-17.00 at Inspire) where users of the Arcadia Sports Hall will present their plans on how all facilities can be fitted onto the Stockport Road site.
The council’s proposal is to build a new combined facility containing two swimming pools, a gym, a multipurpose fitness and community room and a full library on the Stockport Road site. The council maintains that it is not possible to retain the old Arcadia building and fit the new facilities on the same site and has proposed that users of the Arcadia are relocated to the Mount Road Sports Hall currently used by the Gorton Boxing Club and the Grange School. The boxing club would be relocated to the new Belle Vue development and the building would be adapted based on the needs of existing Arcadia users using funding from the £6.5m allocated to the new Levenshulme facilities.
The meeting on the 26th July is an opportunity for Arcadia users to challenge the council’s proposals and present plans / proposals that they have developed.
Facilities lists related to the major redevelopment of sports, leisure and library provision that will take place in Levenshulme over the next two years are provided here. There are three documents, all provided as Microsoft Word document downloads:
Back to our usual meetings:
Friday 28th June, 19.00 @ Levenshulme Inspire
Come along and discuss the Baths, Library, development of the new facilities and Arcadia. And raise anything else you want to about what’s happening in Levenshulme.
The next campaign meeting about the Baths, Library, Arcadia etc. will happen on Friday 28th June, 19.00 at Inspire on Stockport Road
We’re taking a week off to have some well deserved fun at the launch of the Levenshulme Food and Drink Festival on Friday 21st.
Media coverage of the spectacular win for local campaigners in saving Levenshulme Library from closure.
(John McDougall, Mancunian Matters, 14 June 2013)
Jeremy Hoad, chair of the Friends of Levenshulme Library, was delighted at the news and expressed relief that the facility has been saved.
“It’s win, win, win all round,” he told MM. “It means that the library is saved and protected for the next two years until the new library is opened. It does offer a sense of hope and a positive model that libraries can be saved. It provides everything we wanted, everything we could have hoped for and more for both now and the future.”
Read the full article HERE
A blog post by novelist Paul Magrs on Levenshulme library being saved and the value of libraries.
View Paul’s blog here
It was announced on Monday 10th June that Levenshulme Library will stay open for the next two years in its current building before being transferred to the new joint facility on Stockport Road in 2015 to sit alongside new gym, fitness facilities and swimming pools as part of a £6.5m investment in Levenshulme.
Smiles all round as it is announced Levenshulme Library is saved through a partnership between Levenshulme High School for Girls, Community groups and Manchester City Council.
Photo (left to right) credit: Mark Waugh
The meeting will be attended by Neil MacInnes, Head of Libraries, Information and Archives, who will make an announcement about the future of our library jointly with councillors and community members who have worked hard to find a solution to prevent the closure of our library.
Town hall bosses have revealed their preferred location for the new Levenshulme leisure centre. The facility – set to replace the existing baths and library in 2015 – is planned for the current Arcadia sports centre site off Stockport Road. A report to be considered next month shows it would include a ground floor pool with a gym upstairs, as well as the new library.
(Manchester Evening News, 31st March 2013)
Read the full article HERE
A new public library appeared for the afternoon on the lawns of Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens.
Manchester Mule, 31st March 2013
Read the full article and watch the video HERE
Children heard a spirited reading of The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, Where the Wild Things Are and the Gruffalo, complete with a Gruffalo impersonation, in a “pop up” library built to protest library closures. The flatpack facility was the brainchild of campaigners from neighbourhoods across Manchester including Northenden, Levenshulme, Burnage and Fallowfield fighting to keep their libraries open.
Subject to consultation, up to six libraries across the city could go in the latest round of £80m cuts implemented by Manchester City Council after the Coalition government slashed its funding. A replacement library will be built in Levenshulme – but not for two years.
Levenshulme activist Valerie O’Riorden told Mule that campaigners had not heard confirmation whether the new library would be a like-for-like replacement. “And with the other libraries who aren’t getting a replacement facility in Burnage or Fallowfield or Northenden” she said, “they’ve heard nothing. As far as anyone’s concerned the libraries are shutting and they will be replaced with an outreach service and maybe a book collection point in a shop or something.”
Monday 11 February – 7:00 pm – Campaign Planning Meeting at Inspire
Tuesday 12 February – 5:00 pm onwards – Crowcroft Park Primary School
– Consultation drop-in session organised by the Council with Councillors
and senior officers to hear residents’ opinions and explain the
proposals in detail –
Wednesday 13 February – 10:00 – Manchester City Council Executive
meeting at the Town Hall. This meeting is open to members of the
public as observers. By applying in advance and getting agreement,
members of the public may be invited to speak to specific items on the
Agenda. Two members of the Levenshulme campaign have submitted a
request and it is expected that they will be called to speak at the
appropriate time.
LCA facilitated a public meeting with Cllr Jim Battle who said he was impressed by the energetic actions of the campaign group who have been protesting about the proposed closures of both the Baths and the Library.
Councillor Battle confirmed that £6.5 million has been set aside from capital receipts of the Council for a new-build Joint Service centre which is due to be built by 2015 at a location somewhere in Levenshulme. He could not confirm where this is to be as the land was still under negotiation. He was asked to shepherd the negotiations for keeping open our vital and only public buildings until the new facilities are ready to use.
Two teams of campaigners have made recommendations about possible sources of funding which COULD be used to keep them open, but the use of Public Health money for the Baths and wider considerations about the whole city’s Libraries will be discussed in a series of Council meetings leading up to an Executive Committee meeting on 13th April, where final decisions about how to deal with the latest round of cuts will be made.
The Campaign group raised the serious impact on the area if either or both these public facilities are closed before the new one is opened.
We committed to keep up creative efforts to convince the Council to respect these needs of Levenshulme people.
LCA is working with a large group of campaigners and groups, like the Over 50s Swimming Club and Asian Ladies Swimming Group, who want to make sure the Council keeps the baths open and that they understand the need for privacy, which is the joy of having two pools at levy baths.
Library users are being asked to write letters as well as complete the Consultation forms to show what the Library means to each of us – not just a source of book borrowing, but a place to meet, a heart of our community.
Decisions will be taken in mid-April about keeping our Carnegie Library open until a new Library is established for Levenshulme. Please write to Cllr Richard Leese with your views. Copies can also come in to the LCA. Please sign the Petition available in POD and the Inspire Centre.