News that Bradford Central Library could re-open as early as this summer is very welcome, if a little surprising.

Many feared the worst when this paper revealed the serious problems facing the Central Library in October last year.

The library was initially completely shut down, with emergency work needed to make parts of the building safe. The ground and first floors were re-opened a short time later, but the rest of the eight-storey building has remained closed.

That meant meeting rooms and archives were out of bounds to the public and a number of groups, including the Bradford Family History Society, were forced to move to alternative premises.

It was estimated the repair bill would be in the region of £4m and it was difficult to see where the Council would find the funds.

That figure has now been halved, and although £2m remains a sizeable figure, it seems there is more optimism about staying in the building, and possibly even having all the public library floors open by summer.

That is welcome, but questions still remain to be answered about how this situation was allowed to happen in the first place.

As we said at the time the problems were first revealed, the problems must have been apparent for some time, so why was nothing done until the only option was to close the library down?

The £2m remains a large sum for the Council to have to find in the current climate. It would have been much better if the maintenance of the building had been managed more efficiently and repairs carried out as and when necessary – and it would probably have also been much cheaper as well.