Mike Sellers serves a cup of tea in Humberston Library’s new tea shop, the kitchen of which has been paid for by ABP, while Your Community Hub’s Melissa Taylor accepts the company’s donation (image courtesy of ABP/David Lee Photography)
A Grimsby library which has been saved from closure by a newly-formed community enterprise has received a welcome boost thanks to a generous donation from Associated British Ports (ABP)
The Humberston Library was closed by North East Lincolnshire Council as it was not economically viable to keep it open, meaning more than 800 book lovers from the area would no longer have a library facility close to their home.
However thanks to Your Community Hub, an enterprise run by Nathan and Melissa Taylor, Grimsby residents who didn’t want to see the library close, Humberston has been given a new lease of life. The library has now reopened and boasts a brand-new tea shop, which Nathan and Melissa hope will give it a long and sustainable future.
Nathan said: “We were already long-term users of the library and we were disappointed to hear of its potential closure at the end of 2013. We know how important the library is to the community but we also knew that it needed some work to make it fit-for-purpose, without being a burden on the taxpayer.
“We decided that opening a tea shop within the building would provide a means for the library to make money and ABP’s donation has paid for the kitchen, meaning we don’t have debts to service as we begin trading.”
ABP has donated £5, 000 to Your Community Hub to help keep the library open by ensuring its café is equipped to the highest possible standard, and users are already enjoying their new-look facility.
“We are already over two-thirds of the way to building user numbers up to where they were, and we’ve had lots of positive comments from visitors, many of whom have said that this is just what the library needed.
“As well as the tea shop and library, we also offer baby yoga and Kinetic Kids classes and local clothing retailer The Style Lounge is also part of the venue. The library is available to hire and we’re also looking at services and activities aimed at the over 50s, which we hope to be able to offer in the very near future.
“We currently have 1000 users visiting the library each week and we hope the plans we have for the facility will increase this further.”
ABP Port Manager Grimsby & Immingham Mike Sellers said: “We were only too pleased to be able to help get Humberston Library up and running and secure its future for the benefit of the whole community.
“We wish Nathan, Melissa and the rest of the team the best of luck with the library and we look forward to seeing it succeed over the coming months and years.”
The library is run by Nathan, Melissa and a group of 16 volunteers who each give between three and 10 hours or more of their time each week to keep the facility open.
ABP is the UK’s leading ports operator with 21 ports and other transport related businesses creating a unique national network capable of handling a vast array of cargo.
Around one quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade passes through ABP’s Statutory Harbour Areas. ABP contributes £5.6 billion to the UK economy every year and supports 84, 000 jobs. Our current investment programme promises to deliver an extra £1.75 billion for the economy every year.
ABP…
- Handled over 1.5 million vehicles in 2013.
- Generates around one quarter of the UK’s rail freight
- Has 1.4 million square metres of covered storage
- Has 1000 hectares of open storage
- · Handled 119m tonnes of cargo in 2013
- · Owns 5000 hectares of port estate
- · Has 87km of quay
Over the next five years, ABP is investing over £650 million in a wide range of major projects across the group.
ABP Humber
The four ports of Grimsby, Immingham, Hull and Goole handle more than 65 million tonnes of cargo between them each year.
Grimsby and Immingham form the UK’s busiest trading gateway and move around 54 million tonnes of cargo per annum.
£130-plus million is currently being invested in the biomass handling terminal in Immingham, in a Humber-wide agreement with Drax Power Ltd that has seen £25 million invested in a biomass handling facility in Hull. The Immingham Renewable Fuels Terminal handles sustainable biomass shipments and will create over 100 permanent jobs once complete. The construction phase has also created 100 employment opportunities.
The Port of Hull handles 10 million tonnes of cargo per annum and is the is the focal point for the development of the UK’s largest offshore wind turbine construction, assembly, and service facility, which will be located on the Port’s Alexandra Dock. This new facility, coupled with a new rotor blade manufacturing base near Paull to the east of the port estate, represents a £310 million investment and could create up to 1000 direct jobs.
The Grimsby River Terminal represents an investment of £26 million and allows large car-carrying ships to berth outside the Port’s lock system. This development confirms the Port’s position as the UK’s leading automotive handling facility.
More than the equivalent of 1million teus (twenty foot equivalent unit) of unitised trade is shipped through ABP Humber ports.
Ro-ro and container traffic represents more than 30 sailings a week to Europe, Scandinavia the Baltic and beyond.
The Humber ports handle more than 70 freight train movements per day.
Goole is situated 50 miles upriver and is the UK’s premier inland port. It handles over two million tonnes of cargo annually.
