Call for library to open on more days

By Charlotte Lillywhite, Local Democracy Reporter

Wandsworth council has revealed it is reviewing borough-wide library opening hours after a petition signed by more than 150 residents. 

The local authority is looking at opening hours at all 11 libraries across the borough as it develops a new strategy to manage them.

It comes after 154 residents signed a petition from Wandsworth Conservatives demanding the council increases the opening hours at Northcote Library in Battersea from four-days-a-week to at least six. 

The new library opened in April last year to replace the previous 1960s building opposite. 

The scheme was approved under the council’s old Conservative administration, before Labour took over in May 2022.

The petition said the new library was more sustainable as it used solar energy and air source heat pumps, slashing energy costs, while it has workspaces that can be hired by businesses. 

It added: “These design options were deliberately chosen by the previous Conservative administration so that opening hours in the new Northcote Library building could be extended beyond the hours offered in the old 1960s building, which was expensive to heat and had limited commercial space to hire out.”

Responding to the petition, a council report revealed a new library strategy was being developed in Wandsworth – with work under way including an assessment of residents’ needs. 

Pictured top: Northcote Library in Northcote Road, Battersea (Picture: Wandsworth council)