A FAULT-stricken town centre library will turn back the pages of history when it is forced to shut up shop.

North Shields’ Central Library will close on November 26 and its 25,000 books will be moved to nearby temporary premises.

The library will reopen on December 12 in the former North Tyneside Business Centre on Saville Street. This building, which opened in 1858 as the town’s Mechanics Institution, included a library for use by the skilled working classes.

Ten years later, a public meeting resolved that the Borough of Tynemouth should adopt the Public Libraries Act, with a view to amalgamating the collections of the Mechanics Institution and the Literary and Philosophical Society in Howard Street in North Shields as Tyneside’s first Free Library.

The old building remained in use until 1975 when the Central Library in Northumberland Square library opened. But now the clock has been turned back through the closure of the Central Library, which had 316,322 visitors in 2010/11, but has been plagued by building and system faults.

A full North Tyneside Council meeting on November 24 will consider plans for a £2.7m refurbishment of the Central Library building.

The proposed scheme would turn the building into North Shields’ Customer First Centre which would include the library, new community space and a range of council services under one roof.

It is hoped that creating a second entrance to the adjoining Beacon Shopping Centre will help invigorate the mall and the town centre generally.

If the scheme is approved it is anticipated that the library will remain in its 19th Century base for the next six to eight months.

Paul Gowans, council head of customer and cultural services, said: “Central Library is no longer fit for purpose. It is suffering from a number of ongoing problems ranging from a leaking roof to a faulty lift.

“We are particularly concerned that the heating system may fail this winter, as it did last year, creating an unacceptably cold environment for both our customers and staff.

“We simply cannot risk this issue forcing the closure of the library without alternative arrangements in place.”

He said that the building’s mechanical and electrical engineering system has exceeded its design life. Its ventilation system no longer works, and there have been leaks from its roof and boiler, plus its lift is currently under repair. There have also been drainage problems on the ground floor.

The council’s current customer services accommodation is in Unicorn House in the town but this is occupied on a short-term lease expiring in March next year.

The owners of the Beacon Centre, Baronsgate Estates, proposed to incorporate provision for a Customer First Centre in the mall as part of reinvigoration plans for the shopping centre.

A favourable rental offer was made by Baronsgate based on the benefits of the footfall generated by the Customer First Centre that would be attractive to other tenants and Baronsgate Estates agreed to take ownership of the existing Central Library building and incorporate it into the shopping centre.

But the retail slump has led Baronsgate to pull out of the deal, the report says.