CONTROVERSIAL plans to relocate Redditch Library are set to be discussed by Worcestershire County Council’s overview and scrutiny performance board next week ahead of the upcoming final decision.
The board will discuss the current proposals at the meeting in the council chamber at County Hall, Worcester, from 10am on Monday, June 26.
The proposals will then go before the council’s cabinet on July 20, where a final decision will be made.
Relocating the library to the town hall as part of a ‘community hub’ is part of the Town Plan Deal, led by Redditch Borough Council.
This would allow for the current library building to be demolished to make way for a plaza in the town centre.
The county council held a three-month consultation on the proposed library relocation, which ended in February.
The consultation involved a survey, which could be filled out online and in physical form, and two in-person meetings hosted by the county council at the library.
Of the 1,467 responses to the survey, which represents 2.2 per cent of the town’s population aged over 19, 72.3 per cent said they disagreed with the relocation of the library.
In addition, 77 per cent of library members who took part in the survey, said they did not want it relocated, compared to 52 per cent of the participating non-library members.
Of those who responded, 81 per cent said they were library members.
The chair of the county council’s overview and scrutiny performance board, Coun Tom Wells, said: “The meeting in the Redditch Town Hall was well attended, when this item last came to the board, we would welcome and encourage residents to come along and have their say or watch the meeting as it is webcast online.”
