Nottingham City Council updates as authority confirms effective bankruptcy

City Council open GBP10m library day before declaring ‘bankruptcy’

After months of work, Nottingham’s new Central Library opened on Tuesday, November 28. The GBP10m library spans over three floors and features a cafe and ground floor reception area. There is also an immersive room, a children’s area, meeting rooms and an exhibition space in the building which is located within the Broadmarsh regeneration area.

Regarding the opening of the library, the leader of Nottingham City Council, David Mellen, said: “I think it’s very important for a big core city in the country, like Nottingham, to have a central library. “That’s been something that’s happened for a couple of 100 years, it’s been in different places. Most recently at Angel Row which has been a very good library but perhaps was a little dated in terms of the building.

It was a bit dark and not so welcoming as this is, not that it didn’t do a great job for the city. “We’ve had an ambition for a while now to have a new central library and this meets all the expectations. It’s a beautiful building, a place which is spacious, a place which is welcoming and a place which is light.

It’s a place that has lots of places where people can sneak away and get lost in a book.” He continued: “That’s what we want for children and for adults in Nottingham. I also think it’s a welcoming public building where people will find a space to be.

We have a lot of problems with people maybe being isolated and people who are finding it difficult to keep their homes and actually here’s a warm building they can come and spend some time in. “We need children to continue, we don’t want them to stop reading when they get to five. We want them to continue and actually books are quite expensive.

Although they might have school libraries or community libraries, this is a great facility where they can either read books or borrow them and take them home. “It’s really important. I don’t think you can invest more strongly in our city than to develop children’s love of reading which will hopefully take on into adulthood and into older life.

It’s not just for children, it’s for older people as well.

“It’s been lovely to see people here and to see them get their first-ever library card.

I’m just excited to see what this building will achieve.”