A MULTI-MILLION pound revamp of Canterbury’s library could be on the cards after council chiefs controversially abandoned their plans for a new building.

Kent County Council has revealed it is preparing to submit a bid for up to £3million of lottery cash to pay for a major overhaul of the Beaney Institute in the High Street.

The news comes more than a year after plans for a new state-of-the-art library at the Whitefriars development were scrapped, with KCC saying it could not afford what it had once hailed as a flagship project.

County council Conservative deputy leader Sarah Hohler disclosed that KCC has appointed consultants to draw up a bid for money from the Heritage Lottery, which will be submitted by the end of March. A decision on the application would come “six to nine months” later.

Talks with Canterbury City Council have taken place and the two authorities are expected to signal their joint support for the redevelopment scheme shortly.

Cllr Hohler, cabinet member for library services, said KCC’s case for lottery cash was strong because the Beaney Institute was of historical interest and already housed a significant museum and gallery.

Under the scheme, KCC intends to relocate staff to open up more of the building to the public and create a more modern facility.

However, one consequence of the proposal is that £500,000 which KCC had been due to spend on the library in 2004 will not now be used.

The details were given at a council meeting (Thursday 19) in response to a question tabled by the Canterbury county councillor Graham Gibbens (Con). He had asked for an assurance that KCC intended to spend the £500,000 set aside for the library next year.

Cllr Hohler said the bid for lottery cash meant that was now unlikely. “The alternative would [have been] to spend the funding on the existing library space, which we have recognised as being too small for development, not least in relation to new technology,” she said.

The decision to go for lottery money offered “a unique opportunity to redevelop the building as a whole,” she added.

Cllr Gibbens welcomed the news. “I always believed that the Whitefriars development was not the best place for a new library. The danger was that it would focus people only on one part of the centre of Canterbury. The development of the Beaney Institute, which is a far better place, will help enourage growth and regenerate a part of the city centre that needs it,” he said.

If everything goes to plan, work on redeveloping the existing library could be underway in 2005.