What happens next for an empty community building in New Quay is to be discussed by Ceredigion County Council next week.

Members of the council’s charity trust committee are due to discuss New Quay library and reading room with a report outlining a review of the trust and the next steps to be taken.

The building has been vacant since 2021 and the library is now located at the town’s Memorial Hall, with no plans to return because of a lack of disabled access, no running water or toilet facilities.

The land at Uplands Square where the library was built was placed into a trust in 1952, a report to the committee states, with the priority conveyed to Cardiganshire County Council in 1956.

“As the trust site is now vacant and officers have received confirmation from the Library Service and NQCL [New Quay Community Library] that there are no plans to use the site as a library or reading room in the future," noted a report to the meeting on September 26.

"There is a need to consider the position of the trust and its future as the trust site is not currently being used for the purposes of the trust nor being of benefit to the beneficiaries of the trust."

Councillors will consider a “doctrine” called cy-pres that “enables charitable gifts, which would otherwise fail, to be diverted to another related charitable purpose” and a new purpose could be decided following consideration of the spirit of the original gift, the desirability of providing new purposes that are close to the original and the necessity for the new purposes “to be suitable and effective in light of current social and economic circumstances.”

The report adds that the new purpose of the trust to be proposed to the charity commission be “the advancement of education of the inhabitants of New Quay.”

A consultation will be required before a scheme is drafted and a Public Notice issued before any changes are made.