RAMSBOTTOM'S new library is set to open next month, more than a year later than originally intended.

The £1million project has been plagued with problems since it began at the start of 2005, including repeated vandal attacks and the contracted construction company going into admin-istration.

The project was also involved in Bury Council's controversial sale of the L S Lowry painting The River-bank last year. The authority sold the painting for £1.4million to help offset its 2006/7 budget deficit of £10million, and part of the sale cash was used to complete the new library.

Bury Council officials have now confirmed that the Carr Street development will be opened to the public on February 12 under the name of Ramsbottom Library and Adult Learning Centre.

The new facility provides a combined library and adult education service on one site, together with a council information point.

The extended building is designed to provide better facilities for the community with improved opening hours and disabled access. There is also a state-of-the-art IT suite, which will be accessible to both library users and students.

Two of the new interior rooms will each have their own designated name, the L S Lowry Room and the Evelyn Waite Room, after former Conservative coun-cillor Evelyn Waite, who served on Bury Council from 1974 to 1995.

She served as Mayor of Bury in 1986 to 1987, and was also on the Peel Tower Liaison Group and East Lancashire Railway Trust Board of Management.

The building also boasts a specially designed stained glass window created by local resident Bryan Farlow, of Carr Bank Avenue.

To mark the new building, the window depicts some of the town's best-known land-marks, including Peel Tower, and also commem-orates the Queen's 80th birthday, featuring the LMS 6201 Princess Elizabeth steam train at Rams-bottom's East Lancashire Railway station. The "celebration window" was created with £1,000 funding from the Ramsbottom, Tottington and North Manor Area Board.