The bid to build a new library for Hereford is back on with campaigners gambling on lottery luck to get a scheme off the shelf.

Outgoing chairman of Hereford Library Users Group (HLUG) John Hitchen has told Herefordshire the group was fully committed to progressing the project by “whatever means possible”.

The group is currently calling on MPs to back the bid for a new library next to the proposed institute for higher education - on the site of the council’s current education HQ, and believes that “serious funding” could be applied from Big Lottery once this year’s Olympics are over.

The current library in Broad Street is on a register of buildings threatened with untoward deterioration.

New archive and record office

The cash-strapped council has already revealed plans to spend £6 million on a new archives and modern record office at Rotherwas, adding such a centre is the only way important archives and records can be kept in the county.

HLUG, however, has voiced concern that a centre at Rotherwas will only be used by serious researchers.