The project will see the existing Cherry Hinton Library expanded and improved to include fully accessible new meeting rooms, a new community café and garden, new toilet facilities, and a new improved library space.
The new community hub will be created after extra funding was approved by Cambridge City Council A professional team will now be appointed to complete technical design work and to start construction of the hub.
A review of community facility provision completed by the council in 2017, identified a shortage of community spaces in this part of the city. Creating new community facilities for parts of the city that need them has been a strategic priority for the council under its Community Centres Strategy.
Residents have worked together for many years to raise funds and to bring forward plans for the new community hub. In 2018 they began working in partnership with the city council and Cambridgeshire County Council on a scheme to extend the existing library building on the corner of Cherry Hinton High Street and Colville Road.
Situated in the centre of Cherry Hinton, the library is ideally placed to become a hub for the whole community, where residents will be able to come together to have meetings, host activities and events, have a coffee, access important local support services and still borrow books.
The city council agreed to provide £492k of capital funding and has allocated £197k of Section 106 (S106) developer funding contributions towards the building costs, to enable the hub scheme to be delivered in a single phase in order to minimise disruption.
In addition, the county council have allocated £28k of S106 funding, and £50k of local funding will be raised to contribute towards costs.
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