RESIDENTS are fighting proposals that would see a historic library closed and replaced with a community centre.

Hayes Library in Golden Crescent, Hayes and Hayes Pool, Central Avenue, Hayes would be sold off and a new hall merging the facilities built at Botwell Green, Hayes, if proposals are accepted.

Members of Botwell Tenants and Residents Association (BTRA) have decided they are not going to let their treasured library go without a struggle.

BTRA chairwoman Dot Dell, said: "We have been fighting to keep Hayes library as a library, and if we can't, we want to keep it as a meeting place so everyone can use it. It's a listed building, used by lots of community groups and we don't want it sold off."

Built as Botwell Mission Hall in 1896 by Emily Shackle, the library acted as a base for Hayes Football Club, then Botwell Mission Club. It finally took on its role as Hayes Library on November 18, 1933.

The proposed new building would form the centrepiece of plans to turn a site in Botwell Park, between Central Avenue and East Avenue, into an urban park including an all-weather synthetic turf pitch, children's play area and landscaped garden.

Inside the new building there would be family learning and adult education facilities, a health and fitness suite, an exhibition area and a creche.

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