There has been a very ‘strong’ response to Herefordshire Council’s proposals to sell off the Ryefield Centre. The Council has recently published the results of the consultation exercise it has carried out regarding all the chidren’s centres in the county. The Ryefeld Centre in Ross-on-Wye is one of these.

The Council proposal is to sell off the building for development and in the long term to relocate the children’s centre as part of a new school site. In the short term (within 12 months) the space at Ross library would be reconfigured to include children’s centre services.

A large number of people responded to the survey and more than two thirds did not agree, in fact many of the comments were vehemently opposed to them.

One person said:?“This is a pipe dream. Any school would be years away. Ross Library is a library – rejigging and squeezing additional services into one space dilutes the effectiveness of all. Keep the library a library and provide sufficient space and resources elsewhere for your essential staff to do their job.”

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