Library move plan will cost £374,000 – more than keeping it in existing building

Moving Llanrwst’s library to a disused business centre will cost a quarter of a million pounds more than repairing the building it’s already housed in.

The figures are contained in draft business cases put before Conwy county council’s cabinet this week.

The library moved to its current location, in a former courthouse on Plas yn Dre, in 1998 but the authority said it would cost £90,000 to repair the building’s roof.

The council’s new strategy would see libraries across the county being developed as community hubs, with Llanrwst’s moving to the vacant Glasdir business and conference centre.

The business case submitted for the Glasdir project, the council’s preferred outcome, said: “Relocation of Llanrwst Library to Glasdir will provide an opportunity to develop new partnerships with other council services and external partners, eg Welsh Government, police and the voluntary sector.”

However the report said Llanrwst’s current building is already used by a range of partners, “including Grwp Llandrillo Menai, Citizens Advice Conwy, Community and Voluntary Support Conwy, Hafal and Carers’ Outreach”.

It added: “In 2014, a health information hub was established at the library in partnership with Macmillan Cancer support.

“Conwy’s revenues and benefits service also uses the library for advice sessions.”
The study also revealed it is well used with more than 30,000 visits, 35,000 book loans and almost 3,000 computer sessions held each year.

It also deals with approximately 5,000 enquiries annually, with 99% of users ranking the library as “good” or “very good”.
Meanwhile Glasdir, which was leased by Conwy county council to Conwy Rural Development Centre Ltd, was handed back to the authority in December.

Officers want to utilise the building as a hub, giving similar access to local services and housing the library.
However it will cost £373,800 to fit the venue out so it is suitable to perform those functions.

The cash would be spent on:

Building works £100,000
Library fixtures and fittings £125,000
Library racking £20,000
Photovoltaic panels £66,500
Inflation allowance (20%) £62,300

The third option given in the business case is to bolt on a new library and community hub to leisure services on Watling Street but that would cost in excess of £4m according to the study.

The report said if councillors choose to keep the library in its current home “Glasdir will remain empty for months and could potentially fall into disuse; a major loss to Llanrwst and rural Conwy.”

It said discussions about moving the library to Glasdir were taking place with its former board – but they were scuppered by the arrival of the pandemic.

It added: “This gives an opportunity to revisit the proposal to relocate the library to Glasdir as a co-location with other partners and to provide a community hub for the residents of Llanrwst and the Conwy Valley”.

A consultation on the move is currently being undertaken on Conwy county council’s website and finishes on February 28.
It is being held separately from a public consultation on the full draft library strategy, which advocates libraries as community hubs and begins in May this year.

By Jez Hemming – Local Democracy Reporter