‘Ulverston deserves better’.

That’s the view of the town council in response to a preferred option to co-locate the library service at the Coronation Hall.

Ulverston Town councillors spoke at the South Lakeland locality board meeting to urge Westmorland and Furness Council to put a hold on the ‘breakneck speed’ of the process and to push the end date of the consultation back.

Westmorland and Furness Council launched a consultation asking for feedback on proposals that would see ‘considerable investment’ in The Coro to create an ‘enhanced and expanded’ library service on July 10. The consultation period ends on August 23.

Ulverston Town councillor Christine Howard said: “The consultation that you presented finishes on August 23 and we feel that is too short a period for such an important decision.

“Please do not compromise our King’s Road Library and Coronation Hall as you appear to be planning. Ulverston deserves better.”

An independent assessment found the remodelling of The Coronation Hall to create a café, meeting rooms and flexible community use spaces along with an enhanced library service would cost £2.5 million.

An independent assessment found the cost of refurbishing the King’s Road library to the standard of the Kendal or Barrow libraries would cost £1.9 million. Works would include heating and electrical works, roofing repair, fabric works and refurbishment.

The refurbishment of King’s Road to house a stand-alone library service and to re-model The Coro to create the community café and better community spaces but without the library service would cost £4.2 million, said the council.

The leader of Ulverston Town Council, councillor Mark Wilson, called on the council to hold a public meeting to discuss options.

Cllr Wilson said: “The mood in Ulverston is that decisions have been taken without a wide debate on what the public would speak up for.

“Would Westmorland and Furness councillors attend a public meeting to discuss options before a decision is taken by a cabinet that might affect this town in a calamitous way,”

Town councillor Eirik Hunt questioned how much had been spent on the three temporary pop up libraries and on the Coro proposal as well as related promotional material.”

He also asked: “Why this has progressed so far without consulting Ulverston Town Council or the community.”

In response to the Ulverston town councillors, chair of the locality board councillor Helen Chaffey, said: “We recognise there has been a great deal of interest in the future of Ulverston’s library service and King’s Road building since its closure due to an electrical fault.

“I would like to thank you for attending tonight’s meeting to raise these points with the council.

“These questions and statement relate to a public consultation exercise currently being undertaken by the council, in relation to the future of Ulverston’s library service and the Coro.

“These questions will be fed into the consultation exercise as part of consideration of the responses received in any future decision making by the cabinet.

“Since the consultation exercise is ongoing, it is not appropriate for me as chair of the locality board to comment further this evening.”

The library on King’s Road closed in September 2023 after the discovery of electrical faults in the building during routine statutory checks.

Following the council taking over the management of the Coro in January, the temporary library has been located in the Supper Room at the Coro and is open in line with the King’s Road opening hours.

Councillor Peter Thornton, cabinet member for highways and assets at Westmorland and Furness Council, previously said: “The proposed investment would include an expanded library that we believe offers opportunities to grow and develop the service, by increasingly making best use of the rest of The Coro for events and activities linked to the library, ensuring The Coro is in use by more people, for more of the time, and putting it even more firmly at the heart of the community.”

“We have ruled out a simple fix to the immediate electrical issues as this would only ever be a temporary solution at best.

“The building requires a full re-wire to prevent a constant cycle of closures as other electrical faults become more serious, causing more disruption to library service users – and we also know that the heating system needs replacing and there are other issues with the fabric of the building that need addressing to enable it to sustain a fit-for-purpose library service going forward.

“That is why, before spending the estimated £1.9 million of taxpayers’ money required for such extensive works at King’s Road, we wanted to look carefully at all our options.

“We make no apologies for thoroughly working through those options – the amounts of taxpayer money we are talking about are significant and we need to make sure that investment works in the best interests of our communities and protects our key services and makes best use of our assets.”