Tories ‘wasting money’ on Shirehall library

HEREFORDSHIRE’S Conservatives have been accused of being reckless with public money in pushing ahead with creating Hereford’s new library in the Shirehall.

Green group leader Cllr Ellie Chowns claimed the county’s Conservative-run administration “is signing a blank cheque for what risks being a white elephant” in the mothballed 19th-century building on St Peter’s Square.

The council’s cabinet this week approved a report backing the Shirehall option over the previous plan to put the new library in the council-owned Maylord Orchards shopping centre, as part of a government-funded regeneration programme for the city.

But Cllr Chowns questioned the cost comparisons given in the report, saying: “We as councillors have a responsibility to make our own calculation, which should include the nearly £1.1 million cost of abandoning Maylord.”

A new library could have been completed there by 2025 within the £3 million government grant, she said – whereas switching to Shirehall “will cost this council at least £8 million” given the extensive repair work needed, and would not be complete until 2029.

She was backed by Independents for Herefordshire leader Cllr Liz Harvey, who said such a commitment “would hold this council’s arm up its back”, given the ongoing cost pressures on its children’s services department in particular, and called it “an emotional, not a business decision”.

Council leader Jonathan Lester said: “It’s clear from the business case that there are great advantages to putting the library in Shirehall. We are the custodian of this key civic building, and this will give it a purpose in perpetuity.”