THE founder of a popular Bury knitting club says she was “heartbroken” when the group was forced to leave the town’s library this week for work to begin on a new sculpture centre.

Cyndy Mayor-Talks said she was told on Monday that the Bury Central Library Knitting Club would have to find a new home immediately to allow alterations to the Manchester Road building to take place.

The sculpture centre is scheduled to open its doors in May, and a meeting of Bury planning committee on Tuesday granted permission for changes to be made to the interior of the building to make the centre possible.

The knitting club has found a new home for its weekly meetings at the Castle Leisure Centre in Bolton Street, although it is uncertain if the 30-strong group will eventually return to the library.

Mrs Mayor-Talks said: “We’ve been told there is no room for us now at the library.

“The library staff themselves are heartbroken at what is happening and we’re heartbroken as we’d just started our third year there.

“We don’t know if we will ever get back in there.”

Mrs Mayor-Talks said she understood, ironically, that three forthcoming exhibitions were being planned for Bury Library, including one on knitting.

The installation of the sculpture centre will see the ground floor layout of the building altered, with some of the library space removed to make way for the centre, which has sparked criticism from councillors and library users.

But supporters of the scheme say the development will make Bury the envy of the artistic world and attract visitors from all over the world.