Purpose

A proposal to move the Dewsbury Library to The Walsh Building was considered as part of the Asset Review Report presented at the Cabinet meeting held on 26th September 2023.

The Walsh building is identified as having available capacity which is proposed to be repurposed and made fit for purpose to support wider council services. This will be funded and delivered within existing corporate landlord baseline budgets.

This creates an opportunity to support the delivery of a modernised service hub including the Library Hub service in a refurbished building.

The decision was delegated to the Strategic Director of Adults and Health and Portfolio holder once consultation had been carried out.

Consultation

A seven-week inclusive, accessible non-statutory consultation took place between 27th November 2023 – 15th January 2024. The consultation was available to all members of the public, both library and non-library users. This was also inclusive to key stakeholder including but not exclusive to ward councillors, friends of groups and community partners.

The purpose of this consultation was to:

a.  inform any decision around relocating the current library provision in Dewsbury.

b.  provide insight into what the community would value the most in a relocated library; being shaped by the voices of the community using it and to give their opinion on the proposal.

c.   to provide the Strategic Director for Adults and Health a report following the consultation to inform a decision about moving Dewsbury Library into the Walsh building.

Background Information

The original proposal and delegation of the decisions to the Strategic Direct can be found in the following Cabinet Report:

Asset Review Report

The consultation carried out can be found on the Kirklees Involve website:

Involve: Batley & Dewsbury Library Consultation

Decision

The decision was made to move Dewsbury Library from the existing building to the Walsh Building once the site is made available and the refurbishment and repurposing works have been completed.