Community project is boosted by flurrage of donations

An unlikely episode has lead to one of the borough’s closed libraries benefitting from a flood of books for their “pop-up” community effort.

Campaigners at Cricklewood Library, in Olive Road, were stunned as a case of books was thought to be stolen.

Furious campaigners, shocked at the apparent theft, put up a sign outside the library reading ‘shame on whoever stole the books’.

However, the incident threw up some unlikely cheer when the box was returned days later, with the message ‘we are sorry we took the box of books, we are donating some more of our own’ written across it.

Graham Durham, secretary of the Save Cricklewood Library Campaign hailed it as “the library that refuses to die”.

He said: “This is a lovely story of stolen books being returned despite the forced removal of books at the library by our local council.

“I presume they must have thought they were being given away and then returned them when they realised.

“This is a tremendous tribute to local people ensuring children continue to have a lending library.”

In addition, the library has also received donations from the local Samaritans shop since the incident in March.