Plans to turn library garage into youth club

Oakham Library was built in the early 1970s

Plans to turn a garage that once housed a mobile library vehicle into a youth club have been submitted.

The space at Oakham Library in Catmose Street, Rutland, was also used for book deliveries and storage.

The mobile library service is now defunct and Rutland County Council wants to convert the space into an after-school venue, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

The renovation would include replacing the current sliding door with a glazed shop front and adding wheelchair access and an accessible toilet.

If the plans are approved, the space would be used in the evenings for groups of 20 young people.

The rest of Oakham Library and a family hub that is housed there would not be changed, the LDRS said.

The plans were submitted by the council's contracted quantity surveyor, Rider Levett Bucknall Ltd.

A report accompanying the planning application states: "We understand Rutland County Council no longer has a library vehicle (mobile library) as the cost of replacing and running such a vehicle is prohibitive.

"Alternative arrangements, including a delivery service to the housebound, were introduced over two years ago and it is extremely unlikely, given the capital costs of purchasing such a vehicle and in staffing/sustaining it, a mobile service will be reintroduced."

The authority announced this summer it would be spending £950,000 on improving four libraries after it received government and arts council funding.

It will pay for the rest from its own capital funds.