A town’s project to revamp its library will move forward in the next few weeks, Cornwall Council has promised.

In Liskeard, the main town centre library has been shut since April of last year.

The listed building was due to transfer into the hands of the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) who have got planning permission agreed for a major refurbishment costing an estimated £500,000.

Originally it was projected that the building would reopen in November 2019.

But no physical work has yet taken place inside the building, as Cornwall Council and RIO have not been able to agree the terms of the lease.

In the meantime, a temporary library facility at Cornwall Council’s Liskeard office has come under fire for being ‘run down and unfit for purpose’.

In a statement to the Cornish Times, Cornwall Councillors for Liskeard Nick Craker and Jane Pascoe said they were ‘very disappointed in how long it is taking Cornwall Council and RIO to complete the process to refurbish the town centre library’.

‘The Library service moved up to the Council offices at Luxstowe House many months ago and all the while there has been absolutely no progress on the refurbishment of the library building on Barras Street,’ said Cllr Craker.

‘I feel strongly that the Council and RIO were too eager to move out of the Library building before the funding or legal agreements had been secured.

‘While it’s good that the library at Luxtowe will now be opening on Saturdays, this building is equally as run down, dilapidated and unfit for purpose. Cornwall Council need to wake up to the state of their buildings in Liskeard and urgently take action to address it.’

Cllr Jane Pascoe said: ‘Cornwall Council should urgently get their act together and be realistic about what they can achieve and when. I hope they will learn the lessons from this long delay to ensure we don’t encounter these issues again in the future.’

At a recent Liskeard Town Forum meeting, residents expressed their concerns about how the library project was being managed.

Among those frustrated by the lack of progress is Callington resident David Kelly, who says he has been a regular user of Liskeard Library because it offers a wider selection than his more local branch.

‘I’m an avid reader and the library is absolutely essential to me,’ he said.

‘They should have announced it if they’d encountered complications in the project.

‘I have had to start going to Saltash because the variety of books in the temporary library left me very little choice.’

In a joint statement to The Cornish Times, Cornwall Council’s head of Library and Information Services Julie Zessimedes and RIO chief executive Lindsey Hall said: ‘The transfer of a building to a community interest company is complicated, but let’s not lose sight of the exciting opportunity this partnership will provide for the town. Cornwall Council and RIO are both dedicated to the same aim, to provide Liskeard with a re-invigorated library that will be the pride of the town, and do justice to a very special Passmore Edwards building.

‘It’s not ideal that it has had to weather a long winter unused, but we could not embark on expensive works until the contract was agreed by both parties. We hope to have the lease transferred within the next few weeks.’