THE £1.4 million refurbishment of a Worcester library has been approved by city planners.

The Big Lottery-funded redevelopment of St John’s Library is due to begin early next year, having cleared another hurdle after Worcester City Council’s planning committee raised no objection to the scheme.

The distinctive main library building – an old Victorian schoolhouse – will be left largely untouched by the refurbishment but the unsightly extension to the rear will be demolished and replaced with a larger annexe.

The new extension will provide a staff area and community room on its upper floor and a meeting room, kitchen, toilet, information point, exhibition area and conference room below.

The scheme initially attracted opposition from local conservationists but senior planning officer Alan Coleman said it has since been modified to address “most, if not all” of their concerns. “To the front of the building the alterations will be largely unrecognisable,” he said. “It’s only from the side and especially from the rear where you’ll see the difference.”

A revised comment from the city’s conservation areas advisory committee said it now “has no objection in principle” but still considers “the proposal to be inappropriate in respect of the scale of the extension.”

The committee, however, welcomed the redevelopment plans.

The library will shut for a week from Monday, November 24, to prepare for the upgrade. Books will be moved to the nearby pupil referral unit, also on Glebe Close, from where the service will run from during the refurbishment next year.