Email we sent to the occupiers

We sent this email to the people occupying the Livesey building:

I am just emailing to make sure that you are aware of all of the current facts concerning the LIvesey Museum building.

After the Council closed the museum in February 2008, The Friends of the Livesey Museum, our organisation, was instrumental in stopping the Council from selling the building by pointing out that it did not own it but held
it in trust under the terms of the Livesey Trust, set up in 1890.  Under this trust the building is to be used as a free public library for ever and Southwark Council is the sole trustee.

The Council are currently in the process of changing the terms of the Livesey Trust to allow the building to be used for general educational purposes.  This has to be done with the approval of the Charity Commission which is quite a long drawn out process (has been going on for about a year now).

Many of The Friends have made representations to the Charity Commission that the trusteeship of the building should be expanded to include local community representatives.  The Charity Commission have taken note of this and asked Southwark to consider this. The final decision on this aspect of the trust deed is still awaited and is in the hands of the Charity Commission.  See also this article in Third Sector magazine
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/archive/946471/Charity-Commission-asked-remove-Southwark-Council-sole-trustee-Livesey-Trust/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH

Once the trust deed is finalised it is Southwark’s intention to lease the building to Theatre Peckham to use as theatre workshops and exhibition space.  Theatre Peckham are an established local charity with a track record of working with children and young people throughout Peckham.  They are committed to raising the money (exact sum unsure but at least £1 million) to renovate the building and turn it back into an asset for the whole community.  We undertand that they have the resources to support the running costs of the building.  They have been very open to all of our suggestions about how the building & garden can be accessible to all, not just children attending thier workshops.  We understand that they have already employed an architect and a fundraiser to work on the 1st stage of the project and I
believe that the local community council have committed funds to support this.

You can read more about them in this magazine, page 7:
http://www.peckhamforum.org.uk/UserFiles/file/Forum%20News-%20Aug%2009.pdf

I hope this is useful to you.  Maybe you knew it already but I am concerned that you realised that it is not just “talk” about the building, a viable use has been identified which will be of benefit to the local community just as soon as the legal processes can be finalised.

Many local people have been involved in the campaign to save the building and through lobbying the Charity Commission they are still working to ensure that local people have a voice in its fate.

We are glad that people still feel strongly about the building – please take care of it.

We’d be interested to come to any meeting you are planning to hear what people have to say.  Please keep us in the loop.