Bristol Central Library could relocate in the future, council member says

Ellie King, cabinet member for communities, said the city's Broadmead might be a better location for the library

A library remains under threat of being moved from its historic home despite a U-turn by the mayor, it has emerged.

Plans to move Bristol's Central Library on College Green were raised in mayor Marvin Rees's draft budget in November but scrapped following an outcry.

But council cabinet member Ellie King has refused to rule out moving the library, saying the Grade I-listed building was not fit for purpose.

She said libraries should be seen as "a service, not a building".

Original proposals included £1.4million cuts to the library service as the local authority faces a huge funding gap, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

But following public consultation, Mr Rees said earlier this month that the money, amounting to about a third of the existing libraries' budget, would no longer be withdrawn and the main branch would stay put for the time being.

The library move has been shelved for now but Ms King said it might be revisited in the future

Mr Rees said: "Central Library will remain in its current home and we will not move ahead with the other aspects of those savings proposals.

"Instead, we will work with the city to find ways to sustainably run these departments with less government funding in the long term."

At a cabinet meeting on 24 January, library campaigner Liv Fortune asked cabinet members if they would accept that residents were "not at all open to Central Library being relocated from its iconic and well-established home and to refrain from threatening to relocate it in future".

Ms King, cabinet member for communities, replied that "nothing was off the table" and although they have curbed plans to move this year, they might be raised again in the future.

She said the library was not "fully accessible" and suggested the city's Broadmead would be a better location because transport links made it more open to a "whole range of people from all over the city".

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