Council still cannot give a date when library at Riverside will fully re-open

Rochdale Central Library before the flood

Rochdale Central Library, located on the ground floor of Number One Riverside, has still not fully re-opened eight months after being flooded on 26 December 2015, and the Council still cannot give a date when the library will fully re-open.

A spokesperson said: "We don’t have a date yet when it will be fully open as they are still working on the flooring at the sides of the library so only the central part of the library is in use."

The library was relocated from the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre in early 2013 when Number One Riverside opened, however, the Council remained tied into an extraordinarily long and expensive lease at the Wheatsheaf, which the Council had to pay £1.25 million to get out of.

The current leader of Rochdale Borough Council, Councillor Richard Farnell, was also leader of the Council in 1989 when he signed a 999 year lease for the library space in the Wheatsheaf Shopping Centre.

Number One Riverside the night of 26 December after the flood water abated