REDDITCH Labour has hit out at the council over the future of the town’s “vital” public services if the library is demolished.
The party submitted a Freedom of Information request to Redditch Borough Council which has revealed that unused floor space at the Town Hall is only a seventh of the area of the library.
There are only 321 square metres of unused space in the Town Hall – less than a third of the area of a standard-sized 50m x 25m swimming pool.
The floor space of the existing library is 2,267 square metres – seven times the area of unused space at the Town Hall.
Both borough council leader Cllr Matt Dormer and council chief executive Kevin Dicks said their preferred option is to relocate the library services to Redditch Town Hall.
There has been public concern over proposals to demolish the library with £4.2m of Town Deal money from the government.
Cllr Andy Fry, leader of the Labour group on Redditch Borough Council, said: “Redditch library has 51,340 books, 48 public computers and several thousand vintage books, plus irreplaceable historical archive, which is currently kept in a humidity-controlled room.
“It has a range of other facilities, including three meeting rooms for community groups to use, and it accommodates the town’s main Jobcentre.
“The Freedom of Information response proves exactly what Redditch Labour has said all along – that the unused space available at the Town Hall falls woefully short of the existing library service.
“We have repeatedly asked to see a plan to show where all the library’s services and facilities would go, and, almost a year later, still nothing has been provided.”
Cllr Fry, speaking on behalf of Redditch Labour, said they believe the demolition of the library will result in a “significant downgrade to a vital public service”.
He added: “We will be keeping a very close eye on all the Town Deal Fund projects and seeking full transparency and public involvement before decisions are made, not after.”
Last autumn, nearly 1,870 people signed a petition headlined ‘Keep our library at the heart of Redditch – with a guaranteed plan and full services’ to Worcestershire County Council, which is responsible for library services.
Leader of Redditch Borough Council, Matt Dormer said the library will not be downgraded.
“We must better utilise libraries now or risk losing them, I don’t want to lose that library in Redditch,” said Cllr Dormer.
“It needs better positioning as the building is in the way.
“We will make the library better at the town hall and we will make it better service.
“The footfall after Covid has been halved but our online membership has skyrocketed.
“This town centre is dying and has been for years and nothing has been done about it.
“ I’m not prepared to do the same.”
The county council has promised that a report setting out plans for the future of the library will be presented to the cabinet after the May elections.
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