Stockport council needs to consult on Central Library

Consult the people of Stockport on the future of our Central Library!

Stockport United Against Austerity has been campaigning to save Stockport’s historic Central Library for well over 2 years.

We’re fighting to keep library services in Central Library. The council wants to turn most of this historic building into  an adult education centre and to cut library staff numbers even further. They want to move the library services to the Merseyway shopping centre.

Petition to save the library

We presented our 2nd petition to the 30 March council meeting calling for more consultation. The petition had 1300 online signatures and 307 on paper petition forms, which we collected at our campaign stalls outside Central Library and in the shopping centre. You can see SUAA’s Debbie Hind presenting the petition here (at 52:00).

Escalating costs of the council’s plan

The 14 March agenda for a Stockport council cabinet meeting included a report which said that the cost of the Stockroom project in the Merseyway Shopping Centre had escalated from £14.5 million (to be funded by the Government Future High Streets grant) to £21 million. The cabinet was being told to scale the project back, but to add £2 million of council funding to the grant.

The Stockroom project is the council’s scheme for refurbishing empty shops. The previous Labour council wanted library services to be moved to Merseyway and to close Central Library.

The Liberal Democrats took over the council in May 2022. They want all but a few of Central Library’s services to be moved to Merseyway. The new plan hands over 82% of the Central Library building to the relocated adult education service. The remaining library service would be drastically cut and unstaffed for a third of its opening hours.

The fight for a public consultation

The report to cabinet also had a recommendation for a public consultation on the scaled back Stockroom project.

In stark contrast, in October 2022, the council leader had dismissed a plea for a public consultation on the change of use scheme for Central Library.

We put a public question at the cabinet meeting pointing out this inconsistency. We asked the council leader if he would change his mind on holding a public consultation on the Central Library plan.

Our question was answered by the portfolio holder for Economy and Regeneration, Councillor McAlister. You can see the question and Cllr. McAlister’s reply – (which bizarrely included an acknowledgement that it didn’t really answer the question) – on the cabinet webcast at 2:00.

We couldn’t stay for the discussion on the report, because the public was excluded from the meeting at that point. The meeting minutes still haven’t been published on the council’s democracy website.

We haven’t received a response to the petition and we don’t expect to get a response until the council leader is elected at the annual meeting on 23 May.

Thank you to everyone who has helped

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported this hard fought campaign. We will update with another blog when we get a response to the petition.

You can still sign the petition.