A BID to release funding for a major new city library goes before city bosses next week.

Approval is being sought to spend nearly £1m on the new facility within Southampton’s biggest redevelopment scheme. The 8,180 sq ft building will be located within the Centenary Quay scheme in Woolston after a decision in 2009 to replace the district’s current one on Portsmouth Road.

A city council report said the new one on the former Vosper Thornycroft site will be better placed but cost £16,500 more than the existing library – at a time when funding for libraries is being cut back. If the scheme wins funding tenders will go out for its design, with work st