Your Community Library
Past, Present & Future
Our Vision
Our Objectives
To provide a positive future for children and adults of all ages.
To enrich the life of older people.
To encourage strong, safe and sustainable communities.
To promote local identity and community pride for the Berkeley Vale area.
To provide learning and skills for workforce development.
To provide facilities to improve health and wellbeing.
To encourage equality, community cohesion and social justice.
To help economic regeneration.
Our Activities
.To provide a range of relevant activities for children and adults of all ages.
To provide a community hub for the Berkeley Vale
To provide a good range of reading material to suit local needs and to encourage reading through book clubs, childrens’ activities, authors’ talks and similar events.
To provide short programmes for improving abilities and education, including IT proficiency and skills required for job finding.
To promote and support local and family history studies.
To provide activities to improve health and wellbeing including exercise classes and health education.
To provide activities to tackle social isolation, such as clubs, art sessions and craft making.
To provide purpose built facilities, providing people with comfortable, safe and secure surroundings to undertake community activities.
The History of Your Library
1970
1977
Current building supplied as a temporary solution. It is poorly insulated and expensive to heat. It also overheats in the summer.
Cost cutting exercise by Gloucestershire County Council. Six libraries were to close and some mobile units. The Big Community Offer allowed a group of volunteers to take over the running of the library and receive an annual revenue grant.
2007
2012
Berkeley Books was formed.
It is a Limited Company limited by guarantee. It is also a charity and the charity number is 1149718. Started trading on the 11/11/2012 and the services on offer have gradually been increased.
2016
2019
New Parking Spaces
Three new car parking spaces have been constructed. These will normally be reserved for disabled users, but at the discretion of the staff, may be used by others. We are also looking at the possibility of installing an electric car charging point for two of the spaces, in which case only one space would be labelled disabled. If anyone is considering buying an electric car and is likely to use these points would you please contact the library to show your interest.
Parking spaces
The History of Your Library
1970
1977
2007
Cost cutting exercise by Gloucestershire County Council. Six libraries were to close and some mobile units. The Big Community Offer allowed a group of volunteers to take over the running of the library and receive an annual revenue grant.
2012
Berkeley Books was formed.
It is a Limited Company limited by guarantee. It is also a charity. The charity number is 1149718. It started trading on the 11/11/2012 and the services on offer have gradually been increased.
2016
2019
We are adding three car parking spaces marked for disabled use, but library staff discretion may allow use by others on occasion.
Your Library’s Future
In view of the above the trustees took the decision to provide a new building that would be a library and a community centre. An architect was engaged, new plans were agreed and planning permission was granted. This was supported by Berkeley Town Council, Stroud District Council and Gloucestershire County Council.
The first phase would be to build a new library behind the old one, thus avoiding the closure of the library whilst building was carried out. The second phase would then be to build an annexe to the side as a community centre.
So far we have had a number of donations and currently have £120,000 in hand towards the cost of new build. With another £150,000 we could start building and look for further funds whilst the new library is being built.