Reading cafe turns over new leaf

The new venture was officially launched on Saturday by York Council in a newly-renovated Edwardian tea shop in the city’s historic Rowntree Park.

The move comes as local authorities across the country are having to scale back library services to cope with cutbacks in funding amid the Government’s austerity drive. York Council itself is having to enforce savings totalling £19.7m over a two-year period on annual operating costs of about £124m, but stressed that the reading café will be self-funding through the sale of food and drink.

The council’s Cabinet member for leisure, culture and tourism, Coun Sonja Crisp, said: “The reading café is something very fresh, new and exciting which builds on the council’s growing reputation as a national innovator in library services.”

Rowntree Park, which was a gift to the city in 1921 from philanthropist and chocolatier Joseph Rowntree as a memorial to the Cocoa Works staff who served in World War One, marked its 91st anniversary at the weekend.