By Name and address supplied.
RESIDENTS have been telling me about the development that seems to be going ahead at the old library and art gallery buildings in Avenue Road, Leamington. I am apalled.
These buildings, like a number of others, belonged to people of Leamington as they were are publicly owned and most people would agree that they contribute to the heritage of the town. Suffice to say that the local council, in its limitless wisdom, c
hose to donate the old library to the Warwickshire College or £92,000 some years ago. The college used the building for a couple of years, then sold it off to developers for a tidy little profit.
The council then funded the old gallery as the Community Arts Workshop for a few years before in turn releasing that building to the same developers.
It is their intention to turn the old library into luxury flats and offices and the old gallery into a restaurant (yes, another one).
As a visitor to the town, I am dismayed by this story - first and foremost with the council for conveniently sweeping the provenance of these buildings under the carpet; with the college for its obvious profiteering and lastly with the developers.
The old gallery is a building of real quality and though only a Grade lll listed building, has many fine features. These will be disappearing, the basic wall structure being ripped out and replaced by glass panels.
But the loss of this space, from a community space to obstensibly a private one, is the real issue. How does a situation like this occur? - Name and address supplied.
The full article contains 274 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
