Stockport residents can now have their say on controversial plans to relocate the town’s library to the Merseyway centre.
An eight-week-long online consultation has been launched by Stockport Council, which wishes to move library services from the grade II listed Carnegie building on the A6, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports.
Town hall bosses want to shift the facility to a new £14 million, 135,000 sq ft ‘learning and discovery hub’ on Adlington Walk — which will be known at the ‘Stockroom’.
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However, there is fierce opposition to the scheme, with a petition calling for the plans to be scrapped gaining 7,000 signatures.
That’s despite council chiefs pledging not to ‘demolish or abandon’ the 100-year-old building, and also ruling out any redevelopment as housing.
“We want to let people know the building will not be demolished or abandoned and we will not sell the freehold of the building or allow redevelopment for any residential use,” a council statement published on social media said.
“Should a decision be taken to move library services from this building as a result of a full consultation, we would seek alternate uses that are sensitive to the building’s historic character, retain public access and allow the opportunity for community uses.”
However, Deborah Hind, from Stockport United Against Austerity, said the move represented a loss of one of the town’s ‘treasures’.
Presenting her petition at a full council meeting, she said: “We firmly believe that the USP of Stockport is its history. Our town, built around the origin of the River Mersey still retains many of its heritage buildings.
“However, too many have been lost or had their usage altered.
“Unfortunately we are now in a situation where we could lose another treasure - our historic Carnegie Library — an English Heritage listed library of the north that has been the home of Stockport Central Library for over 100 years.”
The consultation will run until October 18 and is available on the council’s website.
