SHEPLEY Library is safe.
Kirklees Council chiefs have allayed fears about the future of the centre.
They have confirmed that the library, which has been closed for 15 months, will be given a new role.
It is one of four more all-purpose Kirklees library and information centres which have been approved as part of a programme to phase them in across the district over the next six years.
The proposed centres at Birkby/Fartown, Golcar, Shepley and Lindley follow the success of two pilot schemes in Birstall and Skelmanthorpe.
Others in the pipeline over the next year are at Batley and Deighton.
The Birkby/Fartown scheme will centre on the community centre in Wasp Nest Road, Fartown.
The other three will develop existing libraries.
The concept is for the centres to become focal points.
They will bring services into the heart of local communities, making them more accessible to everyone and reducing the need for people to travel to get advice or information.
As well as borrowing books, residents will be able to access a range of council and other public services. These include finding out about benefit entitlements and making payments, planning inquiries, school meals and uniforms, getting advice at specialist surgeries held by Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing, social services, the police, using a computer to access the council website, and getting to know about local events, activities and meetings.
Clr John Smithson, the Kirklees Cabinet member responsible for culture and leisure, said: "The programme to introduce library and information centres is an important part of the wider strategy to make it as easy and convenient as possible for residents to get services they want.
"Each centre is geared to meeting the specific needs of the local community, which may well differ from one to another.
"They are aimed at being flexible and friendly and providing services under one roof."
Clr Smithson said of the Shepley plan: "I am very pleased we are restoring a much-improved service for local people.
"Work should be completed by the end of June.
"The library had to close at short notice in 2004 because woodworm had made it unsafe."
