Libraries bookmarked for closure

FINAL chapter . . . the library will close in June after half a century of serving the community

A library built 54-years ago to commemorate the Queen’s coronation, will close in June.

Protesters were outside Broadway library in Chadderton at the weekend collecting a petition to save the branch.

But staff were told last week that the decision to close Broadway, plus Stoneleigh Library and the mobile library, had been taken.

Broadway, officially known as the South Chadderton library and opened in December, 1954, by the chairman of Chadderton Urban District Council, George Howarth, has been under threat for a year.

It shares a site with Broadway House, formerly an old people’s home. In March last year the library was included the council’s Corporate Property Strategy list aimed at getting rid of under-used or surplus stock. After that was reported in the Chronicle, it was said to be a mistake, and the report was deferred. Broadway’s name was taken out of the next report.

Library user Warren Hearder said: “The library fulfills a very large community function: there are book clubs, reading groups, demonstrations, and a mother and toddler group, which had 17 mothers and 22 children on Friday.”

Chadderton South Ward Councillor Dave Hibbert, who joined other local councillors and library users to collect names, believes the Liberal Democrat administration wants to sell the library and next door Broadway House as one site.

He added: “This is the wrong time for this. We (the Labour administration) always wanted to replace it with a library in the immediate location.

“I have been told it will move temporarily to the Turf Lane Community Centre.”

Oldham Council says the mobile library cost £94,000 a year, and it will close in October when the home library service will be increased.

The council has also agreed to close Stoneleigh library in two months and to look at providing alternative facilities at other sites in the two areas.

Councillor John McCann, Cabinet member for Community Services and Housing, said: “The cost of providing the mobile library service in particular is now extremely high and this has been balanced against the fact that half the number of users are not just visiting the mobile facility but are using other library facilities too.

“We will be looking to invest further in extending the provision of the home library service where possible, which particularly benefits elderly and housebound residents and their carers..

Staff are likely to be redeployed elsewhere in the library services.