Community library party to celebrate 10-year lease

Volunteers running a "wonderful welcoming" community library have held a party to celebrate it being granted a new 10-year lease.

Earlsdon Carnegie Community Library in Coventry was earmarked for closure in 2017 alongside other community libraries in the city.

However, it was saved by campaigners and taken over by volunteers the following year, and has since become a registered charity and community space, run by a team of about 70.

As volunteers and supporters gathered at the library on Wednesday evening for drinks, chair of trustees Julie Rubridge said she "couldn't be prouder".

"They were going to close us within the week," she said. "Look at what we've done."

"It's the only place you can go where you don't need a ticket, you don't need to pay, you can come sit all day, have a coffee, use a computer and be part of the community."

Trustee Zara Turner said having a 10-year lease, signed in November, was unprecedented. "It took us a while to get it so we are over the moon with the decision."

"The council believe that we can keep that longevity, that we're able to continue with what we do, that what we are doing works," she said.

Turner added the longer lease also made the venue eligible for more funding.

"It just gives us that reassurance that, in 10 years time, that we can potentially still have the doors open, still provide the community with something that is much needed."

The licensed venue stages events as well as day-to-day activities ranging from foreign-language learning, crafts and stay-and-play.

"The doors are open and open to everybody. Anybody that needs us and everybody that needs us," Turner said.

She added the party was celebrating the volunteers "who work tirelessly to keep the place open, to create that wonderful welcoming environment".

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