The next meeting of the new Blackfen traders’ and community association will be at 6pm on Wednesday 18 February at the Jolly Fenman in Blackfen Road. Everyone is welcome to come along. It will focus on the situation regarding Blackfen Library but its purpose is to raise any issues about living or working in Blackfen that you may have. Tea and coffee will be provided but of course there is a bar if you prefer harder stuff.

The survival of Blackfen Library remains a concern. In December 2014 Bexley Council decided to remove four libraries, including Blackfen, from its core service and seek community management organisations to run them instead. The decision was made for ‘geographical’  reasons. It did not take account of cost – Blackfen is one of the cheapest libraries to run in the borough in terms of cost per visit – and gave no thought to the effect it would have on the community: Blackfen is the 4th busiest in the borough and 3017 people signed a petition to keep the library as council-run.

Now that partnerships with community management organisations are being sought, we can only hope that a successful partnership for Blackfen is found.