THE NEW town library in Haverfordwest will open at the end of autumn, according to Pembrokeshire County Council.

The library, based in the former Riverside Market building, was originally due to be opened this spring but delays have pushed this date back.

The building is designed to be much more than a library according to the county council, with plans for tourist information provision, a coffee shop, and a top quality exhibition gallery.

A spokesperson for PCC said: “The current program anticipates project completion at the end of October.

“Assuming the above anticipated project completion date does not change, the site will open to the public in November (exact date to be finalised).”

The scheme has suffered a delay due to some unforeseen extra works which needed to be carried out on the building.

The council spokesperson added: “As is very common in Capital schemes, particularly those that involve refurbishing an existing building rather than a new build, there have been some unforeseen works required, such as river wall repairs, which were not apparent before the project commenced.

“In addition, there have been some delays outside of the contractors or the project teams control such as having to re-procure some goods due to a key manufacturer going out of business during the project.”

An extra cost will be incurred by the extended construction period, but this is currently being assessed by the project manager.

Funding for the scheme includes £544,150 from the Welsh Government to develop the new County Library and £90,000 towards the gallery fit-out from the Wolfson Foundation - a charity supporting science, medicine, the arts and education.

Haverfordwest Town Council have given £9,000 toward the library to extend opening hours on Saturday afternoons.

WB Griffiths and Son Limited of Haverfordwest are the contractors.

As soon as the library opens, it will be exhibiting items from the National Library of Wales’ collection, with plans to host JMW Turner paintings and the Black Book of Carmarthen in the near future.

The library could expect to see 200,000 visitors, at a conservative estimate, based on the combined footfall from the current library and the town’s former tourism information centre.

This could lead to nearly £1m being injected into the local economy, as 60% of library visitors are expected to spend an average of £8 while visiting the town.