Flooded library will be repaired
Jan 13 2009 by Dave Black, The Journal
REPAIR work is under way to bring Northumberland’s main public library back into use – ending demolition fears after flooding damage.
An estimated 30,000 items of stock, including books, CDs, DVDs, videos and virtually the entire children’s section, were destroyed when Morpeth’s Central Library was devastated by flooding from the nearby River Wansbeck on September 6. The total damage was estimated at more than £500,000.
Then, in October, the county council admitted the two-storey 1970s building might have to be demolished and replaced. Now authority bosses have decided the best option is to repair the library and bring it back into use on its existing site, although re-location remains likely in the long-term.
Yesterday Marguerite Gracey, head of libraries at County Hall, said: “Building work is currently under way on the library site in Morpeth, which was severely damaged by the floods in September.
“Repairs are being carried out on the site with the aim of bringing the library back into public use on the same site.”
The library stocks some 65,000 items and is used by between 450 and 500 people a day. It has been claimed it could be given a modern new home as part of a scheme to give Morpeth a brand new NHS facility – to replace some services at the town’s Cottage Hospital – and local authority customer services centre.
Morpeth Library is the administrative hub of the county’s public service, housing the Northern Poetry Library, other important collections, a major reference department and a large computer section allowing public access to the internet.
It has been closed since the flooding, with a mobile library van providing a much-reduced service for book lovers and library users in the town.
Meanwhile, patients at Morpeth Gas House Lane health centre – which is close to the library and was forced to relocate to the town’s Cottage Hospital following the flooding – will not be returning to the damaged building for the foreseeable future. The 5,000-patient GP practice will remain based at the hospital while the Northumberland Care Trust decided whether the Gas House Lane premises can be saved, and considers options for the practice’s future home.
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