MORE than 100 people from Culcheth and district turned up for a “Save our Library” meeting organised by local councillors and the Friends of Culcheth Library group.
The meeting – designed to update the community on the efforts of the local library working group, recruit new ideas and gather input from library users – was hailed as a victory by its organisers.
But a warning was sounded by Cllr Matt Smith that although progress had been made on securing the future of libraries across Warrington, Culcheth Library could not be considered “saved.”
The meeting was attended by members of both Culcheth and Glazebury and Croft parish councils, to allow as many people as possible to put forward their suggestions, ideas and expertise about how the community could ensure the library remained open, well-used and sustainable in the long term.
An overview of the work of the Friends group so far was given along with details of the discussions that have been held with representatives from LiveWire and Warrington Borough Council.
During the meeting, a poll was conducted to test the public response to LiveWire’s proposals that the library be moved to the High School site, further up Warrington Road. It was clear from resident feedback that councillors and the Friends group had been right to oppose this plan as there was no appetite by users to access the site on Culcheth Campus.
Cllr Joan Grime said: “Residents in Culcheth, Glazebury and Croft are resolute that we wish to retain our library at its current location. The purpose of this meeting, and the work of the Friends group going forward, will be about working to secure partner organisations to co-habit the site, to increase use and bring in revenue which will help us sustain this valuable service in the long term.”
Cllr Smith said: “The meeting was extremely positive, and allowed both an opportunity for the working group to feed back on the progress we have made so far, as well as collect ideas and input from a wide range of people throughout our community about what they would like to see provided in their local library. There was certainly no shortage of ideas! Although there is a restrictive covenant on the land, we have started from the position that ‘no idea is off the table’ and we are now collating all the suggestions we have had to see which can be pursued, and how local businesses and community groups can get involved.”
Cllr Jan Davidson said: “A crucial part of our efforts to save the library here in Culcheth is securing the funding that is needed to carry out repairs to the building, so that it is made fit for purpose, and remains an inviting place for people to work and enjoy reading. We are determined to secure this commitment from the council and we are working alongside Helen Jones MP to lobby the council chief executive to put forward a business plan which would give our community the investment it deserves.”
Paul Taylor, local resident and board member of LiveWire who was present at the meeting added: “It was a very well attended meeting. It was great to see so many people who were passionate about our local library. There are however two major hurdles that the council’s new working group will need to overcome:
“Firstly there are substantial repairs that need to be made to the building that are the responsibility of the borough council and they would need to commit to funding these in order to keep the library fit for purpose (figures ranging from £40,000 to £150,000 were mentioned at the meeting), and crucially there would need to be an agreement reached to relax the covenant that states that only statutory services can operate from the building.
“Hopefully a change of wording for the covenant can be put to the trustees at the Co-op that will allow a way of raising revenue at the library, while still making sure that the property can’t just be rented out or sold off to a retailer or restaurant in the future, that will allow it to become more sustainable like proposals we’ve seen put forward at other libraries in the borough.”
Culcheth Library
1 Comment
The weather that evening was atrocious, it’s a wonder 100 or so people came out to express their on the fate of their library. Well done those who did venture out and attend.