Anfield's Breck Road Library Could Become a Betting Shop

If you used Breck Road Library in Anfield, it has now been closed for a year, and a bookmaker has applied to move into the building. Boylesports wants to split the former library into a betting shop and a smaller unit that could be offered for community use. Campaigners are asking people to object before Liverpool City Council's planners decide.

What Boylesports wants to do with the building

The library sits in The Mall on Breck Road, on the edge of Anfield. According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Boylesports (UK) Limited has applied to divide the building into two units: a betting shop, and a second, smaller unit kept for possible community use.

The planning documents say the smaller unit would first be offered at a nominal or discounted rate, including to Alt Valley Community Trust, the charity that used to run the library. If no community user is found after 12 months of marketing, it would go on the open market.

Local reporting says the betting shop would be the third bookmaker within a short distance.

Why the library closed

Alt Valley Community Trust (AVCT) ran Breck Road Library for the council from 2015, alongside a library in Dovecot. In the summer of 2025 the council stopped funding both.

The council's position is that AVCT owed £82,500 on the Breck Road building, had not paid rent for five years, and declined to agree a repayment plan. To stop further costs building up, the council used a break clause in its lease with the building's owners and took the building back. Cabinet member for finance Cllr Ruth Bennett said the council "could have been liable for the building's costs for another three years".

AVCT disputes the council's figures. In August 2025 the charity described the council's debt claims as an "unprecedented attack" and called Cllr Bennett's comments "misleading or simply untrue". The library has been closed to the public since October 2025.

Dovecot's library has since had council funding restored, paid at £13,750 a quarter for up to two years to 2027/28 and tied to targets. Breck Road has not reopened.

What the library cost to run

Before the cut, the council paid AVCT £55,000 a year to run both libraries, a figure the charity says had not gone up since 2016. AVCT puts the cost of running the library at about £73,000 a year. For comparison, the charity has said a community-run library in Fazakerley receives £79,204 a year.

What the council spent elsewhere in August and September

Liverpool City Council publishes every payment over £500. L1Local went through its reports for August and September 2026 and its unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2025/26. The reports list who was paid and under which heading, but not what each payment was for.

• Consultancy: £878,629 in August and £622,319 in September, coded as consultancy or specialist consultancy. September's total alone would cover Breck Road's running cost for about eight years.
• Ernst & Young: £346,638 across the two months, paid by Finance and Resources.
• Apple Corps Limited: one payment of £300,000 from City Development, posted in late August and listed under professional subscriptions and memberships. The report does not say what it was for.
• Agency staff: about £4.07 million across the two months.
• Councillors' allowances: basic and special responsibility allowances plus expenses rose from £1.16 million in 2024/25 to £1.59 million in 2025/26.

Some of that consultancy spending covers engineering and project work, and allowance levels are normally set after advice from an independent panel.

What campaigners and councillors say

Save Liverpool Libraries campaigners Ruth Knox and Sue Ferguson have held petition stalls outside the building at weekends. "This is an essential service," Sue Ferguson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Kenny Collins, a former Cardinal Heenan teacher who has lived nearby since 1979, said: "We need a library, we're in one of the most deprived areas in the country." Cllr Alan Gibbons, leader of the Liverpool Community Independents, said: "The bottom line is simple: this community needs a library."

Ward councillor Ellie Byrne, Everton North councillor Portia Fahey and MP Kim Johnson have all spoken against the plans. Kim Johnson has urged residents to object online.

How to have your say

Planning comments go through Liverpool City Council's online planning applications search. Search for "Breck Road" and look for the Boylesports application at The Mall. Comments should be about planning matters, such as the loss of a community facility, the number of betting shops nearby and the effect on the area.

The campaign also runs a petition to save Breck Road and Dovecot libraries on Change.org.

If you used the library and want to share what it meant to you, tell us in the L1Local Community or email [email protected].

Sources: Local Democracy Reporting Service via Birkenhead News (30 September and 9 October 2026); Liverpool City Council statement, Liverpool Express; Third Sector; Liverpool City Council spending reports for August and September 2026; Liverpool City Council Statement of Accounts 2025/26 (unaudited).