Library saga continues as successful trust defends previous grants as ‘exploring possibility’ of moving into old post office

More than 500 people have signed a petition created by a group wanting to take over Lynn’s historic library building.This petition has come about due to a challenge The Margery Kempe Trust has made to Norfolk County Council about fairness and transparency in its application to reside in the building.The Trust, which was one of two finalists announced to take over Lynn’s Carnegie Library building, submitted a formal complaint to the authority, challenging its decision.

Alongside the complaint, the trust launched a petition, encouraging members of the public to get on board with demanding a “fair and transparent review of the Carnegie Library decision”.At the time of writing, 507 people have signed the petition.The core of The Margery Kempe Trust’s complaint is based around “evidence” indicating that the successful applicant, The Garage Trust, secured a £10,000 grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) specifically for the Carnegie library, two months before the county council opened applications to community groups.

Now, an AHF report that the Lynn News has seen states that in January 2021, The Garage Trust was also awarded £14,937 for the old Post Office in Lynn. The Garage Trust confirmed to us that they had received the funding to “explore the possibility” of being part of a mix of occupiers on the Baxter’s Plain building.Adam Taylor, CEO of the Garage Trust, said: “Since coming back from the pandemic, we have been looking for a building to permanently house our activity rather than our pop-up venue in the Vancouver Quarter. “The grant from the architectural heritage fund allowed us to explore the possibility of operating part of that building; however, for a mixture of reasons, including the potential capital refurbishment costs, it was found to be unfeasible to explore further.“As a charity, we don’t generate a significant operational surplus from our activity, so we work on raising additional funding from grant-giving organisations to develop potential new avenues of work. This includes, but is not limited to, potential capital development.”The Carnegie Library will soon be taken over by the Garage Trust, which provides several performing arts opportunities for young people.Lynn’s library will be moving later this year to a purposely built hub located in the former Argos building.