The planned extension to the Burnham Library building is interesting. The planning documents reveal it will house a Family Hub Delivery site, relocating the existing Family service from a temporary building at Ormiston Rivers Academy to this central location. This is all to be applauded. The service deserves a permanent home and facilities. Co-locating it with the library has benefits, and places it closer to public transport links.
This extension may explain why Essex Libraries turned down the Dengie Climate Action Partnership proposal for a wildlife-friendly community orchard on the Library gardens. Essex Libraries were initially enthusiastic and encouraging about our proposal but suddenly went cold. We could, and would have, worked around this extension of course – and still could!
Read more: Urban Habitat: Burnham Library
The planning application states the proposal is exempt from Biodiversity Net Gain requirements and will have minimal impact on existing habitats. However, if Essex County Council were seriously considering their own Essex Local Nature Recovery strategy, they should have taken advantage of this opportunity to enhance biodiversity on-site. This could have helped it reach the LNRS priority to create 3,100 hectares of new habitats in urban areas in Essex. It’s hard to see how ECC will motivate the public and private developers to engage with nature recovery if it does the bare minimum for biodiversity (nothing) on sites it develops itself.
The proposed extension, meanwhile, is surprisingly modest and a missed opportunity to make an extension and improvements to the library itself. A tool and toy library perhaps, a co-working space, a makerspace, solar PV, a heat pump – things that would improve facilities for the public and/or decrease the running costs of the building.
At the end of the day though it’s Burnham Library’s opening hours that are most shocking to me. It’s only open one weekday morning for example. It’s more likely to be closed than not. Getting the library open on a decent schedule should be the priority. It’s one of only two libraries on the Dengie and the other, at Southminster, is even more diminished. The public library offers an excellent model for lower impact living and should be celebrated, well-funded and enhanced.
But with the fate of Essex Libraries uncertain in the face of the forthcoming Essex Mayoralty and Local Government Reorganisation (nobody knows where responsibility for library provision will end up!) the future of all our libraries is ambiguous and confused. #essexlibrariesbettertogether https://www.facebook.com/SaveOurLibrariesEssex/
These are not the sort of issues that planning authorities have much say in, but you might want to express any feelings you have at https://planning.essex.gov.uk/ where you’ll find all the planning documents and can reply to the consultation (ends 3rd February). This is application number CC/MAL/91/25.
Dengie Bioregion 