I had a news story published in the Kent Messenger last week, and its just been published online. It arose through an initial Freedom of Information request I made regarding any possible decision to permanently close Bearsted Library, near Maidstone. The library was shut in April 2017, ostensibly for renovation, but no work appears to have been done on the property since.
I also requested to see any documentation concerning the condition of the property, and that’s how I found the story:
‘Kent County Council knew the floor of Bearsted Library was liable to “sudden failure” at least four months before the building was closed, a report has revealed.
KCC temporarily closed the building in April 2017, so renovation work could take place, but was made aware of its precarious condition in a December 2016 report.
The structural condition survey, conducted by engineering firm KMG Partnership, stated the Victorian building – the site of the village school until 1972 – was in a “very poor state of repair”, and riddled with dry rot, damp, and fungal spores’
Read more here