Council puts library up for sale
WESTON-super-Mare library has been put up for sale – with a price tag of £350,000.
The library at The Boulevard is being marketed by commercial property firm Alder King.
North Somerset Council is selling off the central library as part of a £9.7 million office modernisation programme.
Included in the deal for the Grade II listed building, which has more than 11,000 sq ft of floor space, is the adjacent public toilets.
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The building, which was built to commemorate the 1897 jubilee of Queen Victoria, is arranged over three floors and has parking spaces to the rear of the building.
As part of the changes the library, currently based in a building on The Boulevard, is to relocate to the newly refurbished town hall in October.
Services currently offered at the library have already been scaled back ahead of its closure on August 24 and relocation to the town hall.
The library, which opened in 1900 and was designed by leading Victorian architect Hans Price, is being sold along with Weston Court at Oldmixon Crescent and the William Knowles Centre in Winterstoke Road.
The cash-strapped authority, tasked with saving £47 million over four years, is reducing its property portfolio to two bases – the town hall in Weston and the Castlewood office complex in Clevedon.
The library is described as in a "prime town centre location with potential for a variety of community uses or conversion".
A spokesman for Alder King said: "We have only just brought the property to the market and have had a number of enquiries.
"But it is still early days and hopefully the interest in the building will bring forward some offers."
Historians and community leaders in the town say they want the library building retained and are pressing for it to be used as a community hub.
Suggestions have already been put forward for the building to be used as an arts centre, running workshops and exhibitions, with a café.
Others have suggested it be used as a base for youth activities in the town.
The council has agreed to let community groups or organisations which have an interest in the building put forward their plans ahead of any deal being agreed.
Comments
by Lone_Ranger
Wednesday, August 22 2012, 7:29PM
“slevels - you miss my point entirely. The LIBRARY is not being sold to anyone - it's the BUILDING housing the library which is being sold.”
by istproperty
Wednesday, August 22 2012, 3:01PM
“Nice post.. Good job!
http://tinyurl.com/c4f4znt
http://tinyurl.com/bn2kf8q”
by slevels
Tuesday, August 21 2012, 5:40PM
“@Lone Ranger
"Surely the library BUILDING and not the library has been put up for sale?"
1. Library goes into council offices. It costs money to do that.
2. Library BULDING put up for sale. If you've seen the building, £350,000 is not a high price.
Whatever the utterances, current and previous, about community groups, I'll eat my hat if that building is not headed directly or indirectly towards one of the councils property developer friends.
The councils behaviour over the Tropicana in Weston over is a reasonable indication of their attitudes to public services, amenities, and just about anything that enriches the lives of local people.”
by Lone_Ranger
Tuesday, August 21 2012, 5:10PM
“Surely the library BUILDING and not the library has been put up for sale?”
by slevels
Tuesday, August 21 2012, 3:26PM
“North Somerset Council isn't all that cash strapped. It's just that they are the archetypal Tories, who will sell off properties if they can possibly get away with it. An indicator of the mindset is easy to see in the comments by the Councillor with responsibility for the libraries.. one Felicity Baker. She said... "This library smells...."
I'm a regular user of Weston Library, it doesn't smell. Perhaps a smell appeared when Ms Baker walked through the door.
The irony is that an examination of the figures, the cost, there will be zero savings by closing that fine library down, and shoving everything into the council's offices.
In the last 2 years, it has become obvious that 'austerity' is an ideological choice by the coalition government. Hope they are gone soon. And Felicity Baker and her chums too.
PS Save the Tropicana From These Infidels....”