Almondbury Library is to move a short distance within Almondbury
The new location will mean people can access a wider range of services all in one place, including support for children and families, help and advice, activities for older people, community events – as well as the traditional library service valued by residents.
Where will it be moving to?
The library is currently in Stocks Walk and will move the short distance to become part of the community hub, just off Farfield Road.
Why are we moving the library?
The decision fits with the council’s overall direction of redesigning library services, ensuring they make best use of resources and have the most positive impact on a range of local needs.
Cllr Graham Turner, Cabinet member for Corporate Services, said:
“The way people use and access libraries has changed enormously over the last few years and we need to reflect a more up-to-date way of working.
Each library is treated on an individual basis so that it’s effective for its community. This helps us achieve the best outcomes, to work in partnership with communities and to recognise the value of modern libraries, which have come a long way beyond the simple lending of books.
In Almondbury, moving to our excellent community hub will mean the library service is available more often and is more centrally located for visitors with better car parking.
It will also help us tackle social isolation and support the vulnerable. It will be more accessible to more people and will bring new opportunities – for example, there could be activities like craft clubs, armchair exercises, job club and IT sessions taking place while the library is available.
We fully understand that people can become attached to particular buildings and this decision hasn’t been taken lightly. It has only come after extensive talks with interested parties and the local community.
The council will consider its options for the future of the current building and is confident that it will find alternative uses, which could include a transfer to the community.”
A timescale will now be set for the relocation to happen, with the library most likely to move later this year.
Brilliant news. Better parking, easier access, room for community groups, a chance to engage all the community offering courses, such as gardening, mindfulness, yoga, knitting groups , computer groups. Arts and crafts etc.
“In fact the engagement exercise showed that 73% of people disagreed with the proposal to move the library service.” Huddersfield Examiner 27.1.2019.
I will be interested to learn who these “interested parties” are and what activities they plan to run. Alfa has maintained the current library service by organising upwards of 15 volunteer hours per week, plus many volunteers running clubs such as history, lego and storytime. They have also extensively fundraised. If this does not continue with the move to Surestart i hope the “interested parties” will do a similar job. Whether the library will be open longer remains to be seen. No specifics of Cllr Turner’s plans have yet been disclosed. The council has wasted a lot of money on 3 rounds of consultation over the last 4 years. They have not taken note of the public’s overwhelming support for keeping the library at Stocks Walk.
Will there be any funding for a community hub? I’m interested to read that the word “could” is used a lot? The building where the books are going is very forbidding from the outside as there is a history of antisocial behaviour in the car park. Will this be addressed? I also understand that there is not going to be a librarian, so how is this a library and not just a book exchange? Who will be responsible for the premises when its open as a library? If it’s just books moving they could go anywhere, a library is so much more.
This is a sensible decision overall but has caused some local disquiet amongst people with longstanding attachment to the Stocks Walk building and it’s history. It is essential that Almondbury is better served as a result in terms of accessibility of the library services as the current provision at Stocks Walk is far too limited in opening times. It is to be hoped that the comments by Cllr Turner are genuine proposals and not just empty rhetoric with the ‘community hub’ references . There is plenty of scope for additional services and utilisation of the much newer building…let’s see it have a really positive outcome, please.