New Nottingham library £10.5m funding package approved

The library is currently a shell, with much of the building being a multi-storey car park

A £10.5m funding package has finally been approved to fit out the new Central Library in Nottingham.

The building, part of the wider Broadmarsh development, is currently a shell attached to a multi-storey car park.

An opening date had been pushed back due to the pandemic and financial pressures on the city council.

Now the funding has been approved, it is hoped the library will be open by next summer.

Asset sale

In October the city council was unable to give an opening date for the library after missing out on government funding for the project.

The former main library on Angel Row closed in March 2020 due to pandemic restrictions but it has not reopened and the building is being sold off, said the The Local Democracy Reporting Service.

David Mellen, leader of the council, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "This announcement is later than we would have wanted to make, but we are in a situation where we will not commit to capital expenditure until that money is secured.

"Because we have had a successful asset sale programme, which has brought in money, we can now commence the fit-out of Central Library which has already been built, which is currently a shell."

Closure plan

The new facility will be spread over three floors and will include a children's library, an extensive book collection, free access to computers, laptops and iPads, meeting rooms and a learning lab for school visits.

But some city residents, who are campaigning to save outlying libraries earmarked for closure in a savings programme, have questioned the move.

Stewart Halforty, of the Save Nottingham Libraries Campaign, said: "We are horrified that the council can find more than £10m for a new library when for a tiny fraction of that they can keep open three beautiful libraries in some of the most deprived parts of Nottingham.

"We need a Central Library, and we are over the moon that it will finally be opening.

"But parents don't want to drag children into a city centre of an evening and park in an expensive car park, they want to take them somewhere a short stroll from their house."