Mixed fortunes for county’s at-risk libraries

Another set back for Raunds library but new St James site edges closer

By Natalie Bloomer

Just weeks after North Northamptonshire Council announced that a partnership had been brokered which could save Raunds library from closure its future is now uncertain again. 

Following media coverage of the plight of the library, the education trust Creating Tomorrow contacted the local authority with a potential plan to keep it open.

The proposals would have seen Creating Tomorrow lease the building with Raunds Community Library Trust continuing to run the library service. It is understood that the education trust also planned to extend the building to provide space for the provision of its own service.

Creating Tomorrow currently works in partnership with Chester House in Northamptonshire to provide young people with disabilities hands-on work experience. Students run the farm shop on the estate as well as working on various events and other projects at the site. The trust also runs special education schools in Kettering, Daventry and Luton.

A business plan from the two trusts was prepared and was due to go before a full council meeting tomorrow with the expectation that it would be approved. 

However, Raunds Community Library Trust says another organisation has lodged an objection to the plans due to the way the council has handled the process.