The former Crewe library site cannot be repurposed and must be bulldozed and rebuilt for the new history centre - councillors were told.

Residents have called on Cheshire East to save the building, which closed in March 2016 when the library transferred to Crewe Lifestyle Centre.

At Wednesday's (October 19) meeting of the full council, Cllr Connor Naismith (Crewe West, Labour), said he welcomed the prospect of the archives being co-hosted in Crewe – along with Chester.

Crewe West Labour councillor, Cllr Connor Naismith, shared concerns made by local residents (Crewe Nub News).

But, he said had been approached by a number of residents calling for the vacant library to be repurposed - rather than being demolished and rebuilt.

Cllr Naismith asked: "Can the chair of the economy and growth committee advise on whether a full options appraisal was carried out at the outset of this project and on what basis it was decided that repurposing was not the preferred option?"

He also asked about the change in cost because of inflationary pressures.

The former Crewe library site cannot be repurposed and must be bulldozed and rebuilt for the new history centre (Cheshire East Council).

Chair of Cheshire East Council's economy and growth, Cllr Nick Mannion, said when the initial appraisal had been done for the history centre the former library building was found to be not fit for purpose.

This was in both economic and practical terms.

"We must remember the family history archive that will move to Crewe as part of the £25m project, will be used to store items of documents of nearly a thousand years old in a very sensitive, environmentally controlled building," said Cllr Mannion (Macclesfield West & Ivy, Labour).

Chair of Cheshire East Council's economy and growth, Cllr Nick Mannion (Cheshire East Council).

"Also, in a very practical sense, the building was assessed as being incapable of carrying the weight of the archives that would be moving to Crewe.

"So that is why the repurposing option was not accepted."

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