Eastfield's 'More Than Books' library set to go beyond its remit

It's been given £90,000 from Scarborough Borough Council

The current location of the childrens area which will be the new cafe. The window in the centre of the photo is where they hope to put the new access door to lead out to the garden.
Author: Karen LiuPublished 18th Feb 2023

The community-managed library in Eastfield is set to go beyond its "traditional remit."

It is thanks to £90,000 worth of funding from Scarborough Borough Council.

'More Than Books' aims to deliver a range of things for young people and families to do, including horticultural and outdoor activities.

Pauline Caulfield is a trustee there and said: "We want to put solar panels on the roof which will go towards our energy costs because they're very, very high at the moment. We want to redevelop our cafe area and then we want to move the children's area from the back of the library to the front of the library and make that more amenable to children.

"We're a wellbeing hub and at the moment we're a registered warm space. We have the lease for the garden and we intend to develop it, encourage people to come in and hopefully get a gardening club interested in coming and working for the wellbeing of the residents.

"This is why we wanted to move the cafe to improve the facilities and the seating so we encourage people, not necessarily to borrow books, we don't mind them coming in, sitting as long as they want with a coffee, meeting friends and we also have three meeting rooms.

"We're a very welcoming space and we're run entirely by volunteers. We do have two paid members of staff who are only working 15-hours each week. The rest of the time it's all the volunteers and we have six trustees in total."

This is where the new childrens area will be located.
This is a picture of the garden which is to be developed with some of the funding.
This is a photo showing the view to where the new cafe will be sited.

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