A decision has been made to move Dewsbury Library to a new location, despite the wishes of the local community.
The library will be shifted from its current spot on Railway Street to the Walsh Building next to Dewsbury Town Hall where it will be co-located with the town’s customer service centre. This follows a review of Kirklees Council’s assets which the local authority says identified an opportunity to refurbish the building into a “modern hub” for services.
Works to the Walsh Building are planned to start next Spring, and once complete, the site will be renamed the ‘Dewsbury Library Hub’.
Before the decision was made, a seven-week period of consultation was carried out by the council, with library users, staff, community groups, councillors and the public. Of 301 respondents, 66 percent (198 people) said it was either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ that the library remain in its current location.
In response to another question, 63 percent of people said they don’t use any other libraries in Kirklees. Eighty-three percent of Dewsbury Library users who took part in the survey reported using the facility at least monthly and over half of the respondents said they use the library at least weekly. Despite these findings, the council is set to move the service to the Walsh Building.
The local authority says the thinking behind the relocation ties in with its wider regeneration plan for the town – the Dewsbury Blueprint – with it hoped that bringing the library closer to the centre will increase footfall. Several projects making up the blueprint scheme are underway, including the start of improvements to the area outside the Walsh Building and town hall.
Consultation has also been carried out on plans for Batley Library, with the council also looking to relocate this facility from its current home in the historic Carnegie Building to Batley Town Hall alongside the council’s events team. In this case, 87 percent of 401 respondents said it was ‘important’ or ‘very important’ for the library to remain in its present location. On top of this, over a thousand people have signed a petition launched against the plan.
More recently, MP for Dewsbury and Batley, Iqbal Mohamed, wrote to Cabinet Member for Communities, Cllr Amanda Pinnock, and council officers voicing his concerns and requesting support to try and secure government funding to keep the current library open. The council is yet to set out the next steps for Batley Library.
