The proposed new library and learning resource centre in Hereford’s Maylords Orchard shopping centre has been thrown into doubt as Herefordshire Council has announced a review of the project’s location.
A planning application to repurpose part of the shopping centre, which Herefordshire Council owns, was approved earlier this year, with the council saying at the time it expected the new £3.5 million community facility to open next spring.
But a meeting of the county’s new Conservative cabinet next week is expected to approve a proposal to “review options for the best possible location” of the new facility, part of the Stronger Hereford programme of capital improvements to the city.
The notice of this, which has only just been published on the Herefordshire Council website, says the normal notice period of 28 days is being waived due to the “urgent need to pause current project to review location options”.
Last July, councillors agreed to commit £500,000 to the Maylords project, on top of £8 million for the work to transform Hereford’s museum and art gallery on Broad Street which currently houses the city’s main library.
But at the same meeting, Conservative councillor Nigel Shaw, who stood down last month, said he feared the Maylords project would become “a money pit” for the council.
The rest of the cost of the Maylords and Broad Street projects comes from the government’s Stronger Towns fund, worth £22 million in all to the county.
Herefordshire Council paid over £4 million for Maylords Orchard in 2020 after the shopping centre was hit by falling sales due to the Covid pandemic.
Herefordshire Council has been asked for more information on the proposed review.
Is Leominster about to miss new housing boat?
Monmouthshire County Council leader reappointed
Assurances given over council overspend
Witness appeal following a collision on the A40 near Raglan
Spending on lethal tree disease announced
New Hereford museum opening date slips
Concern grows for missing Herefordshire man
Homeless pod in city loo plan slammed
