Hereford will have a new library in the city’s Shirehall by August 2026, the county’s head of finance has said.

A new capital budget and strategy to run from April, passed by a full meeting of county councillors this morning (February 9), sets aside £395,000 for the relocation of the library & learning centre in the coming financial year, and £2.6 million in the following year.

Recommending the measures, cabinet member for finance Coun Pete Stoddart told the meeting: “The library will be open in August 2026.”

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Relocating the new library, part of the Stronger Hereford programme, from the Maylord Orchards centre to the largely disused Shirehall has been a key policy of the Conservative administration which took over in the county last May.

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Former council leader David Hitchiner of the Independents for Herefordshire (i4H) said the Conservatives were “reverting to their bad old ways” by “only grudgingly” presenting a business case for this and other decisions.

But i4H councillors voted to back the capital budget and strategy, with only five Green members opposing.

The city’s library moved out of its former Broad Street home last year as part of moves to turn the building into a new exhibition space, the largest of the Stronger Hereford projects. It currently has a temporary home in Friars Street.