THE new £2.7million Library and Customer Service Centre in Billingham is due to open next month.

The state-of-the art facility will open on the site of the town’s former Art Gallery and Council offices.

Library users will benefit from the latest in self-service technology, improved ICT and reference facilities and a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books, all with support from professional librarians.

The combined facility has merged both Roseberry Library and Billingham Library on Bedale Avenue, creating a one-stop-shop which brings together customer services for Stockton Council and Thirteen housing group, a cash office and Billingham Town Council headquarters under one roof.

Customer service staff will be on hand to talk to residents and people visiting the facility will also have the option of using self-service technology to report an issue or request services.

Councillor David Coleman, Stockton Council’s Cabinet Member for Access and Communities, added: “The one-stop-shop arrangement means residents in Billingham won’t have to venture far to find information."

The existing library on Bedale Avenue is due to close on Tuesday 30 December. Until then it will remain open on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm.

In April 2013 Stockton Council announced plans to refurbish and relocate libraries across the Borough following public consultation and work on the new build began in January 2014. This year Roseworth Library and Thornaby (Westbury Street) moved into the Redhill and Riverbank Children’s Centres and the Stockton Public Health Information Library has also relocated from Bayheath House in Stockton into the Redhill facility. A transformed Norton library also reopened in November following a major refurbishment.

For more information and opening times of libraries across Stockton Borough, visit www.stockton.gov.uk/libraries