Hartlepool's Seaton Carew Library closes for four months to allow £250,000 transformation to be carried out

Hartlepool Borough Council is turning the 1970s Seaton Carew Library, in Station Lane, into a new and accessible community hub offering a wider range of services.

The improvements are set to include energy efficiency measures such as improved lighting as well as the addition of automatic doors at the main entrance and an accessible toilet.

New carpets and flooring will be installed and most of the adult books will be relocated into the existing children’s library space to create a more open and flexible community space in the main library area.

A local artist will also be commissioned to paint a mural of a popular children’s story to enhance the children’s reading area.

The existing office and staff room will be replaced by a private meeting room for use by community groups and for hire.

The kitchen will also be upgraded so that refreshments and snacks can be sold.

Councillor Gary Allen, chair of the council’s adult and community-based services committee, said: “These improvements will transform Seaton Library and put it at the very heart of the community.

“They will create 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, 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.”

The improvements have been made possible after the council bid for and won a £200,000 grant from the Libraries Improvement Fund, which is delivered through Arts Council England.

The remaining £50,000 came from the council itself, which was used to replace the roof.

The library will close its doors at the end of day on Saturday, October 26, for about four months while the work is carried out.