The book exchange in Caversham Road has been removed

A COMMUNITY book swap made by a Kentish Town woman has been acci­dent­ally thrown away by bin men on a non-bin day in a “baffling” incident.

Veolia has since apologised and promised to replace the recyclable bookcase.

Eighteen months ago, Caversham Road resident transformed a two-compart­ment travel case into a water­tight mini library where residents could pick up and donate books.

Teacher Gina Santangelo, who lives on the Camden-Islington border, would often make the journey to the Caversham book exchange because of its “eclectic range” of tomes, from Little Women – the first novel her daughter read – to Andy Murray’s biography.

She recommended it to her pupils and said the book exchange was a life-saver when libraries were closed during Covid.

“It brought a little bit of joy into our community,” Ms Santangelo said. “It breaks my heart that someone destroyed it and all the books that were in there.”

On Thursday August 25, Veolia bin men scooped up the 40-book library and chucked it in their van on a non-bin day. No note was left and the owner was not informed.

“It’s ironic that the truck was plastered with a sign that said ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. Where’s the reduce, reuse, recycle in that?” Ms Santangelo said.

A Veolia spokesperson said: “We have systems in place to ensure bulky waste is picked up on time and from the correct location. “On this occasion, the bulky waste collection crew was tasked to collect a wooden cabinet from a GPS location near the communal library box. Unfortunately, the team mistook the portable library box for the cabinet and removed it. We apologise for this error.”