Earlier this year Hampshire County Council gave the go-ahead for an exciting project that will transform Bridgemary Library, in Gosport, into Hampshire’s first Green Library. This project is being funded by a £150,000 capital grant from Arts Council England as part of their Libraries Improvement Fund. The County Council is contributing an additional £60,000 towards the building works and to benefit the local community – including significant investment in book stock.
The project will:
• Improve our building to make use of renewable energy sources – including new rooftop solar panels, an air source heat pump heating system, and electric vehicle charging points.
• Improve our library through new book stock, a new layout and larger children’s library.
• Improve our garden, making it more accessible.
• Develop a programme of information, events and activities to inspire, educate and spark conversation about our changing world.
• Provide training opportunities for staff and volunteers at Bridgemary to learn about climate change and other ‘green’ issues.
These ambitious plans must all be delivered by Spring 2024, when the Green Library will be launched. To achieve this, we will have to temporarily close the library for building works to take place – the library will be closed from Monday 6 November until Friday 15 December 2023. During the closure period, customers will be directed to other libraries and to the digital library for book borrowing.
Your closest alternative libraries during this time are: Gosport Discovery Centre, Fareham Library and Stubbington Library.
Current groups, events, and activities at Bridgemary Library will resume when the building reopens, and as we continue our transformation into a Green Library.
We will use this website and social media to provide updates during the transformation.
Investing in environmentally sustainable projects like the Bridgemary Library project is part of the County Council’s wider climate change commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2050, and I am hopeful that the building alterations and new ways of working with the community that we are developing at Bridgemary have the potential to be rolled out across other library branches in the future.