Campaigners attend meeting over libraries changes

More than 100 people attended a public meeting over the future of libraries in North East Lincolnshire, a campaign group said.

North East Lincolnshire Council wants to move Cleethorpes Library into the town's leisure centre and turn Waltham Library into a community library run by volunteers. It is also considering moving Grimsby Central Library to a town centre hub.

The second phase of a public consultation into the plans started in April and continues until Wednesday 9 July.

The Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Civic Society, which organised the meeting on Saturday, has started a Save Our Libraries campaign and said more than 900 people had signed a petition against the changes.

Angela Greenfield from the society told BBC Radio Humberside: "We are very concerned about the dumbing down of library services.

"We just don't feel it's the right way to go. For example, we are just not happy with re-locating Cleethorpes library into Cleethorpes leisure centre. The proposals are just not what we want to see."

Grimsby Central Library has been closed since March following a water leak which the council said risked disturbing asbestos.

Ms Greenfield said: "We have heard rumours that the plan all along was to move the books out to a temporary location and they would not come back, but we're hoping that's not the case."

A spokesperson for North East Lincolnshire Council said: "We are currently still awaiting detailed assessments of the work needed on the Grimsby Library building, including the removal of the asbestos, which means that the building remains closed for safety reasons.

"The process to safely decant the books and other important historical archives is continuing. In the interim, once we are in a position to release more information on the location of a temporary pop-up library we will do so. A number of locations are currently being looked at."

There are no planned changes to the current location of Immingham Library.

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