Earlier in the year, the Civic Forum ran a petition for the County Council to negotiate with the Co-op to consider converting the Somerfield supermarket on King Street in Belper into a new library for the town. We would like to thank over 300 people who signed the petition. It now turns out that the Belper store has been bought by Lincolnshire-based supermarket chain Haldanes stores, with a restriction that it continued to be used as a supermarket.
We think this would have been an ideal site for a new library in the town, still desperately needed to replace that opened in a former doctor's surgery on Bridge Street in the 1930s. The County Council say that they are still looking for a suitable town centre site.