Former council leader among those objecting to moving town’s library
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THE former leader of East Staffordshire Borough Council says he is staunchly against moving the town’s library to the market hall even though the hall is losing almost £60,00 a year.
Councillor Richard Grosvenor has been very vocal on social media about his opposition to the plan to move the library, saying he wants to see market traders stay where they are and the venue expanded, including hosting food fairs and artisan markets, which he feels would attract more people to the venue.
He was the Tory leader of the borough council when £1.5million was spent improving the historic hall and says he stands by that decision, despite the £57,000 a year the building is losing the authority.
Councillor Grosvenor, who has left the Tories and now stands as independent councillor representing Branston, was leader in 2012 when the £1.5m was spent on the market hall, which included a move to use it as an entertainment venue at night, which failed to materialise.
During this revamp, which attracted much opposition at the time, the fixed market stalls were replaced with pop-up ones and the traders were temporarily relocated to Station Street. At the time, 4,000 people signed a petition against moving the traders.
The current plan to move the library to the market hall is part of a series of proposals have been put together by the Town Deal Board, which has secured £22.8 million to spend on improvements in the town. It says the current library building needs a lot of money spending to maintain it and the only way to secure the market hall’s future is to move the library there.
In light of Councillor Grosvenor’s vocal support for keeping the library where is it and leaving traders in the Market Hall, Staffordshire Live quizzed him on his views and whether he believes the original revamp was money well spent.
He said of the revamp: “It was not just about trying to improve footfall. People have got to remember what the market was like. It was causing a danger. The balcony was unusable. The brickwork to the front was cordoned off.
“We wanted to keep the building going and safe for people to use, and tried to do something including regenerating the evening time offering but it was to keep it as a market hall and that is what we managed to do.
“[With regards to turning it into a night time venue] it was clear that it wasn’t a venue that people wanted to operate anything in, there were problems with acoustics and parking.
“The petition with 4,000 signatures was not against upgrading the market, it was against moving the market traders to Station Street and Labour took control and moved them back to the market square.
“The £57,000 [figure] - we have had a pandemic so there has been a loss in income, lower levels of occupancy and service closures. They now want to spend £8.3 million to stop it being used as a market venue.”
Burton Town Deal Board wants to spend £8.3 million on the library project which would open up the library building, in Meadowside Drive, for other development. It says moving the library would bring more footfall into the town centre. Campaigners, who have signed a series of petitions on line, feel this is too larger amount of money to spend when the town already has a library building.
They also fear the library site would be lost forever to the town if it were developed and fear houses would be built there.
The town deal board would spend £7.3 million on moving the library, with an extra £1 million from Staffordshire County Council which owns the library.
The board says the 1970s library is an aging building and moving it to the market hall would increased the number of people in the heart of the town centre. However, Councillor Grosvenor says the county council, which runs library services in the county, has its own maintenance budget to spend on upgrading the library and the money to repair the current building, off Meadowside Drive, should come from this budget.
He believes that the town deal board should, instead: “Listen to people that operate the stalls. It is really important that they ask these people. It could be used for enhanced markets, maybe food venues.”
A spokesman for the Burton Town Deal Board did not wish to comment further.
A spokesman for the county council said that if the proposal for the library does not go ahead, it would need to carry out a maintenance backlog at a cost of £850,000.
The spokesman said: “At this point the county council would also need to carry out the maintenance backlog and recommended work to ensure it continues to be fit for purpose for at least the next 10 years, at an approximate cost of £850,000.
“These works would need to be carried out alongside the current library functions which would see disruption to the library service for a significant period due to the dual height entrance foyer.”
Listen to people that operate the stalls. It is really important that they ask these people.
Richard Grosvenor
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