The council is re-advertising for organisations to take over and run Cobbett Road Library, after a lengthy wait for users to see it open its doors again.

 

 

The library, by way of a reminder, is at the bottom of Cobbett Road near Bitterne Road West. It’s been shut since the end of January 2020 2021, when previous operator Social Care in Action pulled out.

In October 2021 the then Conservative-controlled council said it would start a procurement process to find someone to run it. That got off the ground around March 2022, with a deadline for interested parties of April 5.

Handover to a successful bidder for an initial five-year period was to have been “After 1st June 2022”.

In June the then new Labour administration said it hoped the community facility would be fully open again “by the end of the year” - but it now looks like this date will be pushed back until at least the end of March 2023.

The revised process is open to both new and previous bidders, with an application deadline of 12pm on December 15.

The preferred ‘bidder’ is due to be announced by December 22.

It’s understood that the original invitation to submit “expressions of interest” included some ‘sticking points’ with both council and at least some interested parties, particularly over building safety compliance, and opportunities for reviews and break points to the 24-year lease.

The current level of interest in taking on the library is unknown, although in June Cllr Toqeer Kataria, the (Labour) council’s cabinet member for communities and customer engagement, told bitternepark.info that at that time the council “[had] received three expressions of interest to take over the library building and its services".

Responding to the news of the re-advertisement, a spokesperson from the Friends of Cobbett Road Library said: “We are delighted that at last there seems to be movement on re-opening Cobbett Road Library, and hope this time the process will actually work through to a conclusion."

Photo of group taken July 2022