Private Eye : 'Library News' : 6th January
Issue No. 1279
7 January - 20 January 2011
One of the 11 North Yorkshire towns set to lose its public library thanks to local government cuts is Kirkbymoorside, where the brand new £650,000 state-of-the-art combined library and community centre was only completed in September 2009.
The library and learning centre was made possible by a large dollop of money from the doomed regional development agency Yorkshire Forward (itself a victim of coalition cuts), as part of its Renaissance Market Towns programme. More than £10,000 worth of new books were added to those moved from the old library, and a new computer suite and a children's zone were created. The building also has rooms to hire for community groups and a number of adult learning evening courses are held there.
Indeed it's so new there is still a fierce town council row rumbling over what to do with the town's former library building and whether to spend £175,000 to convert it into offices. The row has already prompted a mayoral resignation and a by-election. How the town will cope with a second empty library building is anyone's guess.