Number of visitors to new £60m Worcestershire library tops 100,000 (From Dudley News)

Number of visitors to new £60m Worcestershire library tops 100,000

12:10pm Friday 17th August 2012 in Business Daily

THE number of visitors to Worcester’s new £60 million library and history centre has topped 100,000 in the six weeks since its opening.

The Hive, a partnership project between Worcestershire County Council and the University of Worcester, was underpinned by financial investment from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), with the support of Worcester City Council.

It has been built on The Butts site through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), bringing together the public sector with private sector developers Galliford Try.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport provided the county council with £40.9 million of PFI credits, the county council added £6.6 million, the University and HEFCE contributed over £10 million, AWM £7 million and the city council £300,000.

The combined facility is believed to be the first of its kind in Europe, drawing together the county council's library services for the city centre, as well as extensive library facilities previously provided by the University at its St John’s Campus.

It opened its doors on July 2 and the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh officially opened the building on July 11.

It welcomed 17,000 people during the first week alone and is well on its way to meeting its target of 1 million visitors during its first year of opening.

Kathy Kirk, libraries and learning manager at Worcestershire County Council, said: "It is wonderful to see The Hive welcoming so many visitors at this very exciting time.

“We have been overwhelmed with the positive feedback about the building and all the wonderful services on offer to the public.”