“…we do not want to lose our library.” says Head of HLC

A headteacher has “opened a conversation” with a parish council over keeping its library open.

Dan Roycroft, the secondary school headteacher at Hadley Learning Community, told parish councillors that he has had to save £700,000 and has “lost” staff in balancing the books.

“We do not want to lose this, it is a resource we fought so hard for,” Mr Roycroft told Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council on Tuesday (July 1).

He described how the current financial situation is more difficult than he had “ever seen” and the school is having to be more efficient.

“But I am passionate that we do not want to lose our library. People still want to use libraries and we need to provide the best that we can,” he said.

Mr Roycroft told the council that he was looking for £8,000 to be able to open the library regularly to the public for one year. He also wants to organise events with authors. He said he needs to pay for five staff to provide regular opening hours.

Mr Roycroft said the library opens regularly to the public on Saturdays, and on weekdays when the school is on holiday.

“We need a consistent funding stream,” he added. “I’m asking everybody to chip in.”

The council members heard that they have a £4,000 budget for grants his year.

Councillor Julie Kaur (Labour), a businessperson, said it may be better to ask for a lesser amount of funding to ensure regular hours.

“Getting it off the ground with £4,000 is more realistic,” she said.

Councillor Eileen Callear asked for more information from a survey and data on footfall. Mr Roycroft agreed that there needed to be a “wider consultation”.

Parish councillors agreed to defer a decision on providing a grant until they could get more information that they need. In the meantime the libraries service at Telford & Wrekin Council would be approached to see if it could assist.

Councillor Phil Millward (Labour) added that he didn’t recommend “letting it linger. We need to get it up and running.

“Let’s get stuck into this straight away.”

Hadley Learning Community became a part of the Learning Community Trust in March 2018. The secondary school on the site is for 11- to 16-year-olds and when it was last inspected by Ofsted had 1,095 pupils on the roll.

The campus opened on September 1, 2006 and was a £70 million Private Finance Initiative project.