A plan has been unveiled to move Hale Library to a new 6,000 sq ft community hub on the site of the current bowling green.
The proposal, which has been jointly put forward by the newly formed Hale Community Trust and Altrincham-based Hillcrest Homes, is the first significant tender since Trafford Council invited bids for the redevelopment of the site.
It would involve the library facility moving to a new library and community centre on Ashley Road, replacing The Cottage pavilion and toilets overlooking the 100-year-old bowling green used by Hale Bowling Club.
Below: Hale Bowling Club pavilion, and (above) a drawing of the new library and community centre
The existing 7,800 sq ft library site on Leigh Road would be redeveloped as six houses, a shop and office with two flats above, funding the new centre and providing a “significant capital sum” for the council.
The plan has the support of a partnership of local businesses and community groups, including Hale Civic Society, Friends of Hale Library, Altrincham & Sale Chamber of Commerce and the WI. It also has the backing of Hale Bowling Club and Hale Veterans Bowling Club.
If the plan gets the go-ahead, the two-storey building, which includes public toilets, could be completed in time for next spring by Hillcrest Homes, owned by Altair developer Nikal.
Below: The plan to redevelop the bowling pavilion has the backing of Hale Bowling Club
The Trust would also buy 22 car parking spaces on Cecil Road, spaces that were originally earmarked to be sold under the council’s land sales programme. Parking receipts would be used to help fund the centre.
The need to redevelop the site has been triggered by Trafford Council’s need to save £700,000 from the library services budget in the face of government cuts. Hale Library on its own must save £45,000 a year.
An initial consultation process led to the shortlisting of three options for Hale Library’s future: a smaller library on the existing site, the construction of a new smaller library in the village, and the provision of a temporary facility in the village until the new Altrincham Library is opened in 2017.
The Hale Community Trust tender rejects all three options, maintaining that Hale needs a bigger facility to “accommodate the community’s needs”.
Below: The current Hale Library on Leigh Road
The tender document says: “Our proposal will deliver not only much-needed additional housing and parking in the centre of Hale but also a new Library and Community Centre fit for the 21st century, meeting the express needs of local people.”
It adds that the design of the new building will be “attractive, flexible and imaginative”, and that it would “protect the library service from being diminished to the unappealing prospect of a small unstaffed self-service room with no community facilities”.
Below: A drawing showing the planned houses to be built on the site of the current library
Liz Smith, spokesperson for the bid, said: “We have been in discussion with the local community for a number of months, and the community has said that what they want is not to lose any of the activities that currently take place at the library.
“We therefore need somewhere that is large enough to accommodate something like 25 groups, and the only site that could do that is The Cottage. It’s ideal – an old, dilapidated building that will be replaced by a beautiful, iconic building right at the heart of the village.
“The vast majority are absolutely behind it – there has been overwhelming support.”
The council will make its decision on the bid, and any other bids that have been put forward, at the end of the month.
