Work to begin on reshaping Hastings Library

A library will shut down for two days as work begins on a multi-million pound redevelopment.

Hastings Library will close on Tuesday 13 August 2013 and Wednesday 14 August 2013, to enable staff to relocate stock from the lower ground floor of the building before preparatory work on the scheme begins.

East Sussex County Council is reshaping the existing library, in the Brassey Institute, and expanding the complex into the neighbouring building, 12, Claremont.

The scheme will also offer a new home for the Children’s Library, currently based in nearby Robertson Passage, and the Registration Office, which will move from Bohemia Road.

During the closure, customers will be able to return library items to the children’s library, which will remain open. However, the closure will also affect the learndirect centre on the second floor of the main library building.

Cllr Chris Dowling, the council’s lead member for community services, said: “This redevelopment offers an exciting opportunity to bring library and registration services in Hastings under one roof.

“As well as a modern, state-of-the-art library, the building will also offer a more convenient location for people to register births and deaths, as well as new function rooms for marriages, civil partnerships and other ceremonies.

“We would ask our customers to bear with us as work begins on a scheme which will provide a vastly improved service to the public.”

More information is available online on the libraries section of the county council website.