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Stockport Council has approved plans for a 21st Century library to built in the town centre as part of a £14.5 million government funded scheme to repurpose empty retail units in Merseyway.
The new scheme, dubbed Stockroom, aims to help repair the economic damage of the Covid-19 pandemic on the town’s retail sector by attracting new visitors into the town centre, with footfall across UK high streets still down nearly a quarter on pre-pandemic figures.
The new learning and discovery space, funded by the government’s Future High Streets Fund, also aims to help improve the lives and educational prospects of tens of thousands of children across Stockport as well as 11,000 adults who struggle to read across the borough by bringing library services into the heart of the town centre, along with a café and learning space.
Stockroom aims to emulate the successes of other similar schemes across the country such as Chester’s Storyhouse, and increase town centre footfall and reverse the decline in library use, which has seen book loans drop over 40% between 2012 and 2020. After opening in 2017, Chester Storyhouse received one million visits in its first year. Four-fifths of these visits – almost 800,000 – were for the library, café, and community facilities and the remaining fifth for the cinema and theatre. Children’s book loans increased by 50% as Storyhouse helped to inspire a love of reading in children and young people.
Cllr Elise Wilson, Leader of Stockport Council said
“This is in the best interests of the people of Stockport for the long-term. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend £14.5m of Government money to improve our town centre and to help hundreds of our businesses build back from the economic devastation of Covid-19 by creating a learning and cultural space for the whole borough, which will attract thousands of much needed visitors back to Stockport town centre.
“We are committed to helping Stockport build back better from the economic devastation of Covid-19 while also committing to preserving use and access of the current Central Library building.”
The decision of Stockport Council’s Cabinet to approve the move of library services to Stockroom comes following a six month extensive engagement process.
The engagement and consultation exercise was specifically designed to ensure a wide range of views were heard about the proposed relocation of the library service. Although the results were not totally clear cut, there was clear support for a new 21st Century library from families with children under 18, children, young people and businesses in Stockport who would benefit from a much-needed increase in passing trade. More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents taking part in the face-to-face survey said they would visit Stockroom and 73% of respondents from the open online survey also stated that they would be likely to visit it.
Stockroom will be five times larger than the existing Central Library building enabling the council to expand the library service, improving the stock of books held as well as delivering a new café, performance area, ‘best in class’, high quality toilets, new parent and child facilities, and a sensory room as part of plans to make Stockroom one of the most accessible buildings in the Greater Manchester.
The council committed in July 2021 to explore future uses for the Central Library building that would retain public access to this well-loved building. Having listened to concerns raised through the consultation the report sets out a number of options that will be explored over the coming months before a decision is made in Summer 2022.
Cllr David Sedgwick Cabinet Member for Citizen Focus and Engagement, said:
“If Stockport Central Library was thriving and if the town centre was busier than it ever had been we would not need to be here today.
“The way people learn has changed since Central Library was built more than 100 years ago as has the way the people shop and use town centres since the advent of online shopping and the acceleration of online retail caused by a global health crisis.
“We simply cannot ignore the huge decline in usage of the current Central Library building which has seen visitor numbers almost halve in eight years. At the same time new, modern, accessible libraries across the country are attracting hundreds of thousands of much-needed visitors to town and city centres and inspiring a life-long love of learning in children and adults. We now have a golden opportunity to transform Stockport town centre to help hundreds of businesses bounce back from the devastation of Covid-19 which is too important to ignore.”
Five options are now being considered for the future use of the Central Library building once services are moved to Stockroom:
- Moving the Continuing Education Service from their current location (the Council’s preferred option)
- A new primary healthcare facility for the town centre
- A new community enterprise space in the town centre
- A co-working/shared workspace
- Relocation of the Coroner’s Court from Mount Tabor
The development of Stockroom will form another stage in the regeneration and transformation that is ongoing across the whole Town Centre and has already seen successes in Stockport Exchange, Redrock, the Markets and Underbanks and the emerging work at Stockport Interchange and of the Mayoral Development Corporation.