Hereford Shirehall basement now preferred option for new library
Hereford Crown Court also won't be returning to the iconic council-owned grade II*-listed building in St Peter’s Square
Talks will be held next week to decide whether the huge multi-million pound project to turn Hereford’s Maylord Shopping Centre into a library should be axed.
A new report shows Herefordshire Council’s preferred location for the new library is Shirehall – the iconic council-owned grade II*-listed building in St Peter’s Square formerly home to Hereford Crown Court.
But HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which has been working to turn a building at the top of Churchill Gardens into a temporary court, has said it wants to cut ties with the Shirehall.
It means the council – where the Conservatives are now the largest party after the local elections – can now rethink how it wants to use the building.
The Assembly Hall and Undercroft, effectively the basement, will see a “stunning and state of the art library with a modern, accessible learning centre” created.
The council’s report said it would “become a cultural hub in the city centre”.
The building has been left unused since 2020 when parts of the ceiling collapsed after heavy storms.
Last November the previous council administration agreed to pause work on bringing the building back into use due to the cost, then put at ÂŁ7.5 million.
But now, it means the previous plans for Maylords, drawn up under the previous Green and Independent coalition, are set to be axed.
The report said footfall in the centre is up by 50 per cent over the last 12 months and it is a commercially important location.
“The use of Shirehall will bring an outstanding heritage asset back into use as a civic building and form a showpiece library and learning centre that creates a space that residents will be rightly proud of and where they feel they belong,” the report said.
“It will be a home for creative activity, culture and for community and will emphasise the importance of learning and literacy, including digital literacy, to the county’s future success.
“Utilising an existing and currently redundant council owned civic building will also reduce the revenue operational cost compared to being located in a commercial shopping centre.”
Gemma Davies, who was an independent councillor up until May’s elections, previously said it was “incredibly worrying” that the move “ is coming up so late in the process”, with planning permission for the Maylords proposal already granted and funding committed.
The previous administration’s decision to move the library to Maylords, a key part of its regeneration plans for the city centre, “was not taken lightly” she said. “The council underwent rounds of scrutiny and had a huge amount of feasibility studies completed.”
Ms Davies said she was “gutted, disappointed and absolutely flabbergasted” and the Conservatives’ motion to pause the project, saying the county’s population will “never forget” if it’s cancelled.
The library options are set to be discussed at the next cabinet meeting a week on Thursday (July 20).