Councillors seeking support for library expansion plan

Golborne and Lowton West ward councillors holding a surgery at the library

Elected representatives in Golborne and Lowton West ward are hoping to make the case for improvements at Golborne Library to make it even more of a community hub.

They are looking to create an extension to house toilets for visitors, which is currently a notable omission in the Tanners Lane building, and better kitchen facilities.

The councillors say the library is the only community venue in Golborne and they want to do more to make it a local hub.

Coun Gena Merrett said: “There is a real opportunity here to upgrade our community space in Golborne. The library is our community centre, virtually everything happens here.

“There are lots of clubs including art and jigsaw ones, kids’ groups, we hold our surgeries here.

“It’s in desperate need of a bit of an upgrade. We don’t have public toilets, which makes it really difficult when you’ve got groups in here, particularly tots’ ones. We all need toilets.

“We also want to expand it to have slightly better facilities for brewing up. That would be good for the people running groups.

“We want to make the library a real community hub with even more stuff going on there. It’s a building we all greatly value.”

Coun Merrett says she is confident there will be enough money in the section 106 pot to fund all the work on the library building.

Although the public will get the chance to have its say in the coming weeks and months, the councillors have already begun soliciting the views of community groups and residents in Golborne and say they have had a positive response to their ideas for the library.

The councillors say another drawback of the current layout is that the rooms in the library are quite small and storage space is limited.

Coun Merrett also hopes to draw on section 106 money, as there has been a lot of housebuilding in Golborne and Lowton in recent years and she says residents need to see improvements in the local infrastructure.

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