Veritysbooknook Emsworth's community book swap scheme run by Verity's Gift to unveil permanent home
A community book swap scheme run by a local charity is set to unveil its permanent new home in a refurbished red telephone box.
The book swap scheme started organically in Emsworth Town Centre during lockdown when Leane Stevenson left 10 books propped up in the telephone box outside the Methodist Church. A week later there were 50 books and it snowballed from there. On Saturday, August 31 at 11am it will be opening in its new home at the same location.
However, it faced some bumps in the road to get to this point. BT had previously given notice that the box wold be destroyed and the door was removed. BT run a “Adopt a Kiosk” scheme, however it does not apply to the more modern style telephone box. Thankfully after lengthy discussions with BT they agreed local charity Verity’s Gift could adopt the box.
Leane, a Trustee at Verity’s Gift, which supports young adults and children in the local community, said: “It has been a long old haul to get this done. The bureaucracy the paperwork, its been a lot. First of all we had to adopt the old BT box and then get permission to replace the old box. That was when we started the GoFundMe to help purchase the new red box and for all of the paperwork.
“We had to get planning permission from Havant Borough Council, Hampshire County Council and National Highways to replace the telephone box with a new telephone box. So all in all it has taken four years and three months.”
The book swap scheme was supported by the community from the start and interest has continued to grow. Alongside local businesses, people donated to the GoFundMe page to help purchase the new telephone box which will protect books from the elements.
Leane said: “Every time you walk past it there are people queueing to get books. People also donated to the cause, we had a GoFundMe page which people donated to. Be it £2 or £5, whatever they could, to enable us to replace the old nasty looking box with a red original telephone box.”
“It is a wonderful community that use the book swap which is part of Verity’s Gift that support young children in the Emsworth area. All in all its doing everything that Verity’s Gift set out to do which is support the community.”