PROTESTERS will demonstrate outside Bury Library on Saturday against town hall plans to install a sculpture centre.

They will be protesting outside the library, in Manchester Road, from 11am to 2pm.

They claim the sculpture centre would take up two-thirds of the room within the library.

Sue Smith, of the Friends of Bury Library Group, says around 40 members will join the protest to hand out copies of their petition and raise awareness of the plans.

She said: “We want to give people a chance to voice their concerns, and people will be able to leave comments and give their views. It is about supporting the much-loved library. It is not as though we just hate sculpture centres.”

The group has collected around 1,800 signatures and more than 200 names on their online petition.

They also gave out petitions at a Knit and Natter fundraising event last Saturday.

The plans will see the library’s ground floor layout altered. The development, which is set to open next May, requires a one-off capital investment from Bury Council of £75,000, and has attracted a successful funding bid from the Arts Council England of £27,000.

In a heated debate on the plans at the latest Ramsbottom, Tottington and North Manor Township Forum, Tory Cllr Dorothy Gunther questioned the council’s decision to spend the money.

She said: “Do you really think this is the right time to spend £75,000 of council taxpayers’ money adapting a building to have some ornaments, because that is what you are doing.”

Cllr John Smith, Bury Council deputy leader, defended the plans, saying that the centre would attract international exhibitions as well as investment and tourism. He said: “I would have thought the centre is a bit more than just ornaments. It is an income generator and we are becoming a centre of excellence in sculptures.” Cllr Smith also accused Conservative councillors of hypocrisy, saying that they criticised the sale of LS Lowry painting A Riverbank to fill a budget gap in 2006, but are now also criticising a move to bring a cultural exhibition to Bury.

He added: “When we were stuck for money we sold a painting, and it is the other side of the coin now. There is no consistency over the years.”