A saved Glasgow library which still needs major repair work could be transformed into a community hub, a meeting heard.
Whiteinch Library, which reopened on Monday after a 22 month closure, faces challenges and is in “need of significant repair.”
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Whiteinch Community Council want to see the use of the Victorian building expanded - which would help secure it’s long term future.
Residents have been fighting to get the much-loved community venue back open and have held 'read-in' protests to make their voices heard.
The library would cost an estimated £2 million for repairs and maintenance over 20 years - and £1 million immediately according to freedom of information data obtained by the Save Whiteinch Library group.
Glasgow Life area manager Andrew Olney said: “We have to recognise that the buildings and libraries have reopened but we remain in a challenging position around the financial picture - not just for Whiteinch Library but libraries across the city and Scotland.”
Glasgow Life, the community council and Glasgow City Council are due to meet tomorrow (27 January) to develop a feasibility plan for a potential community hub.”
Mr Olney told the Victoria Park Area Partnership meeting the reopening of the library is “strong and very positive news” and there was a “lot of interest in the community” invested in the community facility.
A report submitted to the meeting said while “the venue is safe to open there is significant repair and refurbishment programme required for it to remain a sustainable public venue in the longer term.”
The community council have come up with the idea of a community hub, which would see other services based in the building alongside book borrowing.
It said: “This will maximise the building use and secure the long term sustainability of the building and provide services which the community has identified through community engagement.”
A Scottish government grant has made the reopening of Whiteinch, the Couper Institute Library, Library @ GoMA, Maryhill Library and Barmulloch library possible.
