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Library is safe! Council bows to public opinion over closure
HALIFAX Central Library and archives have been saved.
Councillors have bowed to pressure from more than 16,000 people and scrapped plans to demolish the building in Northgate.
Instead, Calderdale Council has agreed to spend up to 1 million on upgrading and separating it from the nearby civic offices, which are due to be replaced.
It is more than a year since the council decided it wanted to move the library and offices to a new site, probably Broad Street, at a cost not exceeding 12 million. The aim was to sell the entire Northgate site for retail use.
But the library move sparked a huge wave of opposition, which culminated in a 16,000-name petition and an official consultation exercise which resulted in 95 per cent of those questioned giving the idea the thumbs down.
Councillors were told that failure to move the library could have significant financial implications.
Separating the heating, water and electrical services from the civic offices, Northgate House, catching up on a backlog of maintenance and refurbishment could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Retaining it could also reduce the resale value of the entire Northgate site by as much as half and make it harder to sell, according to the council's head of libraries and museum, Gary Borrows.
"Retaining the library will leave an awkward-shaped site which will limit the interest of potential developers and the subsequent site value," he told the council.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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