Rethink on move for Wolverhampton library is dismissed

Spring Vale Library will now move from its site in Hateley Drive to the former Parkfield High School, where it will become a 'community hub'.

A final attempt to force a new assessment of the plans was made at a full council meeting in Wolverhampton last night by Liberal independent councillor Richard Whitehouse, but he was voted down by the controlling Labour party who branded the alternative plan "irrelevant".

Councillor Whitehouse, who has represented Spring Vale since 1984, argued that the site was too far away for people who had been using the old library and that it was not accessible because the entrance to the site in Lawnswood Avenue had been closed off.

He said: "The library is also heavily used by children, mainly from Spring Vale Primary School.

"Do you really consider that these young children would walk the extra 700 metres from one main road to another or that their parents would let them?"

He argued that the library should stay where it was because of its good bus links.

But his motion was rejected by Labour councillors who said the assessments Councillor Whitehouse was demanding had already been done.

Spring Vale is one of four libraries that will close with books and services moved elsewhere.

Councillor Elias Mattu, who is in charge of libraries for Wolverhampton City Council, said: "Parkfields Community Hub will be literally a few hundred yards away from Spring Vale Library.

"It will give great access to the library for the community of Parkfields."