Major cash boost will transform Seaton Carew Library

Hartlepool Borough Council will turn the tired and draughty 1970s building into a welcoming, accessible, sustainable and vibrant Community Hub offering a much wider range of services.

It has been made possible after the Council bid for and won a £200,000 grant from the Libraries Improvement Fund, which is a funding stream of the Government’s Cultural Investment Fund. Arts Council England delivers the fund on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The remaining £50,000 is coming from the Council itself.

Councillor Bob Buchan, Chair of the Council's Adult and Community-Based Services Committee (left), celebrates the grant news with Gemma Ptak, Assistant Director (Preventative and Community-Based Services) (pictured right in red) and members of staff

The improvement work – which will start in the summer and is expected to be completed at the end of October – will include energy efficiency measures such as replacing the roof, double glazing and improved lighting.

Automatic doors will be installed at the main entrance and an accessible toilet added.

There will be new carpets and flooring and most of the books will be relocated into the existing children’s library space (with no reduction in book numbers), creating a more open, flexible and inspiring community space in the main library area. In common with Hartlepool’s other Community Hubs, a local artist will be commissioned to paint a mural depicting a popular children’s story to enhance the children’s reading area.

The existing office and staff room will be relocated to create a private meeting room for use by community groups and for hire to generate income for the library. The kitchen will be relocated and upgraded to provide an area for refreshments and snacks to be sold.

A new footpath will connect the library to the nearby Seaton Park and its additional parking spaces. An outdoor seating area will be created at the library, complemented by a wildflower garden, providing a greater opportunity for more cultural activities to take place in the open space.

Councillor Bob Buchan, Chair of the Council’s Adult and Community-Based Services Committee, said: “We are delighted and very grateful to receive this funding.

“It will transform this 50-year-old building into a warm and welcoming environment which is accessible to everyone and which people will want to visit regularly and enjoy spending time in.

“Turning it into a Community Hub will allow us to co-locate in it services which have proved so popular in our other Community Hubs, such as Jobs and Skills, the Support Hub, Wellbeing, the Fablab and Digital Inclusion and allow us to provide space for external partner organisations to deliver support such as financial advice and mental health.

“It will put the building at the very heart of the community – it’s such an exciting time, with so much to look forward to.”