Council decides to locate Hereford library at Shirehall

Proposals outline how the library would be "flexible enough" to also hold events, Herefordshire Council said

Hereford's new library should be located at the Grade II* listed Shirehall, councillors say after rejecting plans to house it in a shopping centre.

Details provided to Herefordshire Council cabinet set out how it could offer more room.

A request will now be made for funding to be reallocated from the Maylord Orchards Centre scheme.

But one opposition councillor fears the project will become a "white elephant".

The council has also highlighted how the Shirehall plan was "flexible enough" to host events and provide community space.

The library is temporarily located at Friar Street, after moving out of Broad Street to make way for an £18m museum redevelopment.

The council said the Stronger Towns Board would be asked for money allocated, by the government as part of the Stronger Towns Fund, to the Maylord Orchards Centre project to be moved.

The council-owned building on St Peter's Square would house the new library and learning centre

Following the request for transfer of the Maylord funding, a proposal will be put to full council "for additional funding to be added to the capital programme for essential building works".

But Ellie Chowns, Green group leader, criticised the county's Conservative-run administration for "signing a blank cheque for what risks being a white elephant" in the mothballed 19th-Century Shirehall building.

Ms Chowns questioned cost comparisons in the report, saying: "We as councillors have a responsibility to make our own calculation, which should include the nearly £1.1 million cost of abandoning Maylord."

A new library could have been completed there by 2025 within the £3m government grant, she said - whereas switching to Shirehall "will cost this council at least £8 million", given the extensive repair work needed, which would not be complete until 2029.

'Custodians of key building'

Independents for Herefordshire leader Liz Harvey also said such a commitment "would hold this council's arm up its back".

But council leader Jonathan Lester, said: "We are the custodian of this key civic building, and this will give it a purpose in perpetuity."

There were "lots of opportunities to maximise the commercial use" of the council-owned Maylord for the authority without the proposed library, he added.

True Independents leader Bob Matthews said his group "fully supports" Shirehall as a venue for the library.

Councillor Terry James, of the Lib-Dem group, said: "I've yet to hear from the opponents of this plan what they're going to do with [Shirehall], and how they'll pay for it."