Councillors will meet this week to look at awarding the contract to build the new Conwy Culture Centre.

A report will be presented to the council’s economy and place scrutiny committee confirming the funding package for the project and the details of the tenders to carry out the construction work before discussing the awarding of the contract.

A final decision will then be made by the cabinet on Tuesday, December 5, 2017 having been presented with the recommendations by the scrutiny committee.

The aim of the new £3.7 million Culture Centre is to improve access to and enjoyment of Conwy’s archive, heritage and library collections for Conwy County Borough residents and visitors to the area.

The council’s archive and museum collections comprise over 80,000 catalogued documents and nearly 1000 objects. Together, they help tell the story of the development of the area and its people from prehistory to the present day.

The Culture Centre will incorporate a community heritage and arts hub, archive and area library and will be located on the site of the old Bodlondeb school just outside Conwy town walls.

The total cost of the Culture Centre project is £3.7million, which includes grant funding from Heritage Lottery Funding; capital funding and sale of buildings from Conwy County Borough Council; and funding from the Rural Community Development Fund.

Awarding the contract to build the new Culture Centre will mark the final phase of the Council’s strategy to modernise libraries.

Since implementing the strategy, Conwy Library Service has gone from being amongst the “weakest in Wales” (2010/11)* to “the only service achieving all of the quality indicators” (2017).