Residents of Camborne are being encouraged to attend an event on Saturday, March 25, when the future uses of the town's library building will be up for discussion.

The event, being held by Camborne Town Council at the library between 11am and 3pm, will be a chance for local people to share their ideas on how the library can be best used as a public hub for Camborne and to find out more about the changes to the library building once it has been transferred to the town council.

Representatives from Camborne Town Council and its architects will be attending the event to discuss and answer questions about the proposed changes to the building. Most changes will be to the first floor so that the town council can have its offices and hold all its meetings there. There are opportunities to use some of the space differently, particularly the outside courtyard and the council is keen to know what residents would like and think would be most valuable.

The event will be taking place on the first floor of the library so the public access computers will not be available for use during that time. During library opening hours, only library users will be able to attend the event, those who aren’t registered can attend once the library closes at 1pm.

Camborne Library will be one of the first in the county to be transferred to a town council as part of Cornwall Council’s devolution programme, which is helping councils and communities take over local ownership, management and control of services. The library will remain in its current location in the Passmore Edwards building in Camborne.

Though the library service will be managed by Camborne Town Council it will remain part of the county wide library service and membership and stock will not be affected by the change. Current library staff will transfer to Camborne Town Council, and will continue to deliver the service alongside their new colleagues from the town council.

Valerie Dalley, Camborne's mayor, said: “This engagement event follows a consultation in 2015 where over 87 per cent of local residents said they would support the town council taking control of the Passmore Edwards building and managing the library service. We have acted on this and now would like their ideas about how we can make the most of the library and the Passmore Edwards building in the future.”

Geoff Brown, Cornwall Council's portfolio holder for communities, said: “We have been forced to change the way libraries and information services are provided in Cornwall because of the huge cuts in our funding from the Government. Our aim throughout this process has been to work with partners and local communities to protect these much loved services by delivering them in a different way.

"I am grateful to Camborne Town Council for working with us and I would also like to thank our library staff for their hard work and professionalism; and the devolution project team for their combined efforts and work to progress this very complicated devolution programme.”

Jeremy Rowe, Cornwall Council portfolio holder for localism, added: “Camborne Town Council’s proactive approach to take more control over their assets is a great example of devolution in action. Devolution at its most worthwhile is about finding the best long term local custodians of an asset, in this case an library that is greatly valued by the local community.”

More information about the Camborne Library, or the devolution programme, can be found at both camborne-tc.gov.uk and cornwall.gov.uk/devolution.