Six community libraries to be established with award of council grant funding

Article date: 8 August 2025

The Community Libraries Grant Scheme opened for an initial round of funding earlier this year, with six applicants securing their bids.

Almost £25,000 was delivered in the first round, with the rest up for grabs in a second round - open now for applications until 24^th October 2025.

Community libraries are run at sites which are independent of the council and can range from a full library offer of book loans to a more limited offer within an existing building such as a book exchange, lending library, or public access computers.

The key principle is that the offer must be publicly accessible throughout the week - and led by a community organisation, volunteers or community employed paid staff.

The groups that secured funding were Billinge Chapel End, Crownway Community Centre in Newton-le-Willows, Derbyshire Hill Family Centre in Parr, Seneley Green Parish Council, St Thomas Church in Eccleston also known as Church St Helens, and the YMCA in St Helens Town Centre.

Among the services to be delivered, recipients have detailed their plans to provide book exchanges, IT access, job search and CV writing assistance, community cafés to address social isolation, board games, and specialised support for young people.

Catherine Brooks, Trustee at the Derbyshire Hill Family Centre, said:

"Here at Derbyshire Hill Family Centre we are so excited to start work on our community library project. We are going to develop a mini library upstairs in the centre where residents can come and choose books, job search, attend an after-school homework club or just chill in a quiet safe place. A printer will also be available for public use, all thanks to the community libraries grant!"

Nicola Karunaratne-Diver of Church St Helens, said:

"Church St Helens were thrilled to receive the funding to help set up a Community Library and are very grateful to the St Helens Library Service. This funding will help provide a number of tablets that we can use to help our volunteers get all their training up to scratch. The rest of the funds will be used to stock a Community Library based at the Support Services Hub. Clergy, staff and volunteers from across the eleven churches of Church St Helens will be able to access these resources. The project is being run by the Support Services staff team who are all avid readers."

Councillor Sue Murphy MBE, St Helens Borough Council's Cabinet Member for Localities, Culture and Heritage, said:

"In our Library Strategy 2023-2028 we set out a new chapter for our library services, with plans to reach new individuals and communities and tackle local inequalities - while delivering more efficiently to meet the difficult budget challenges we face. Certainly, we're seeing greater engagement in our libraries, boosted by continued investment in our buildings and services.

"Communities were always at the heart of this strategy, with a desire to see local groups and charities already established within them take a greater role in service provision, in line with our hopes for VCFSE groups in our St Helens Together Strategy.

"I'm delighted that these six groups and charities have come forward with exciting, bespoke and deliverable plans for community libraries, and hope to see even more applications in this second round of funding."

Training and guidance will be offered to any organisation who wishes to consider operating a community library. The training will include how to recruit, train and support volunteers, who will be crucial to the sustainability of a community library.

Applications for the grants can be submitted online before the 24 October 2025 deadline.

To apply or learn more about the grant scheme, please visit https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/CommunityLibraryGrant