Bourne town hall and library may be sold by council and services moved to the Corn Exchange
BOURNE’S town hall and library could be sold as council services are shaken up.
The town council and library are set to move to the Corn Exchange to form a new Community Access Point.
This would leave the town hall, in North Street, and the library, in South Street, unoccupied. Lincolnshire County Council, which owns the two buildings, said it would look at other uses for them, but if none can be found they will be sold.
Mayor of Bourne Coun Brenda Johnson is hopeful the town hall will not be sold to a private developer.
She said: “It should be retained for the use of the community. I can understand the council wanting to sell it but it needs to keep its character.
“I would hate to see it mothballed. It has a lot of potential and there is a lot of space there.
“It would have made sense to put the library there but that is not going to happen. The main problem is that there is no disabled access to the first floor.”
The town hall was built in 1821 based on the designs of local architect Bryan Browning. The building, which cost £2,451 15s 1d, was used to house the weekly market and courtroom.
Court sessions were heard in the town hall until 2008 and the building currently houses Bourne Town Council offices and a South Kesteven District Council customer service office.
It was originally touted as a location for the Community Access Point. But the building was ruled out because of the lack of disabled access and the cost of installing a lift.
Coun Johnson added the listed building should not be turned into a shop or a pub. She said: “I don’t think we need any more pubs in Bourne. I would be concerned to see it turned into something like that.”
Coun Johnson would like to see the library turned into an ambulance station and will put her idea to the Bourne Town Council at its next meeting.
Coun Johnson said: “It would mean it would be on the same site as the fire service. We could talk about putting traffic lights in to make access easier.
“It would make a lot of sense because they work quite closely together.”
The county council’s lease on the register office in West Street was due to end last year. Councillors decided to keep registration services in the town after a 90-day consultation on plans to close the office provoked a significant local response. But they have not yet decided whether to keep the office open or to move the services elsewhere.
One option is to move them into the Community Access Point in the Corn Exchange along with the library, the county, district and town council offices and the Citizens Advice Bureau.
But Coun Johnson has a different idea and believes the register office could temporarily be homed in the town hall.
Work on the Community Access Point should be completed by March 2013.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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