Have your say on new Central Library
Plymouth City Council has published plans for the layout of the new central library and is asking people to give feedback.
Earlier in the year the Council announced plans to move the Central Library from North Hill to Taylor Maxwell House on Mayflower Street and revealed plans to co-design the interior of the space with the public.
Since then the Council has been working with staff and user groups to design the layout for the space which is more aligned with how users say they would prefer to use their library.
From 24 June to 11 July there will be an exhibition at the Central Library where the public can take a look at the proposed layout of the new library together with some star items that will appear in the new History Centre.
Plymouth City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Transformation and Customer Services, Councillor Jon Taylor said: “The plans and illustrations are refreshing and different from what is on offer in the current Central Library, but they are only indicative of what might be feasible on the new site. To ensure that we get this right we now want to share these indicative plans with Library customers, and ask them to help us refine our plans.”
The new site is in the heart of the City Centre at the junction of Mayflower Street and Armada Way, adjacent to the Armada Centre and the proposed new Coach Hub.
The Council hopes that this location will help to rejuvenate that part of town as well as breathe new life into a rundown building. The exterior of the building will also get a facelift and the upper floors will be used to house Council call centre staff.
For now the Council wants to focus on the interior of the building and wants to ask customers if they think the Council have allocated the right mix of space to book lending, meeting space, research and public access computers.
They want to know what other services might the public wish to see included within the facility, and to those people who are not currently a Central Library customer they want to ask what could they do to encourage them to visit?
An application has also now been submitted to the City Council for permission to change the use of the building from a bank to a Library.
Once the plans have been finalised, it is hoped that work to transform the building can begin later in the summer ready for the new library to open in the spring.
Plans can be viewed at : http://www.plymouth.gov.uk/newcentrallibrary
