Labour MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy, has said that it “seems incongruous” to remove community bookcases from London Underground stations due to the fire risk when newsagents selling paper products remain.
In an email to constituents this week, she said that Transport for London (TfL) had removed the community bookcase from Blackhorse Road station as the fire brigade “judge them a fire risk”.
Ms Creasy told The Standard: “If the presence of paper books in itself is a fire hazard, so too I presume by the same logic newspapers will be banned from trains and magazines confiscated at the ticket gates.”
Blackhorse Road station in Walthamstow was one of several London stations with a little library for commuters to swap second-hand books.
The east London Tube and Overground station is among those to have had ticket hall “book swaps” banned after they were judged a fire risk.
All London Underground stations, including Highbury & Islington, Clapham North and Oval, had their bookshelves removed from ticket halls after the fire brigade intervention in March.
Signs at stations read: “Due to fire safety regulations from the London Fire Brigade, we have been forced to close all book exchange libraries.
“[This] is on all London Underground stations with immediate effect. We are all sad to see this go. Thank you for all your support over the years.”
A spokesperson for the London Fire Brigade told The Independent: “It is Transport for London’s (TfL) responsibility to ensure its premises are compliant with statutory fire safety regulations. However, we will continue to work closely with TfL on this issue.”
The fire brigade cited section 7 of the Fire Precaution Regulations from 2009 that states “all parts of station premises must be kept clear of any accumulation of combustible refuse or other combustible matter”.
London’s first recorded TfL station book swap was set up in 2005 in Raynes Park, after a nearby library was being refurbished and wanted to offload some stock.
In 2011, the Books for London campaign was officially launched and spread across the London Underground ahead of the 2012 London Olympics.
A spokesperson for TfL said: “We work very closely with all the emergency services to ensure our services run safely and following guidance from the London Fire Service, we have advised our staff to remove book swaps from stations.
“We’d like to apologise to any of our customers that this impacts and we are reviewing our processes for these internally and will work with the Fire Service to see if book swaps can be re-introduced at some stations across the network in the future. We will also work with local communities to redistribute books to alternative local locations in the meantime.”
In an FOI request answered by TfL on 9 April, the transport body said that the community books removed from ticket halls were being kept in secure storage following “discussions with the London Fire Brigade”.
The request questioned the “disgusting” removal of the community book swap at Northfields station.
In response to a separate FOI last Friday (11 April), it said: “We are not aware of any fires that have been caused or aggravated by the presence of book exchanges on the TfL system over the past 30 years.
“The book exchanges have been withdrawn, following discussions with the London Fire Brigade, while we review their compliance with fire safety regulations and to ensure that we provide a safe travelling and working environment for our customers and colleagues.”
Sir Sadiq Khan pledged last month to reinstate book exchanges at Tube stations amid the fire safety row.
The mayor of London said in a statement to The Standard: “I’m hoping there’ll be a very swift announcement that this decision has been U-turned.”
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