Established as a community project by Foresight, the Community Hub was opened in late November 2015. We offer the traditional services of a library;  we loan out books and other materials and have a stock of reference materials - but we offer so much more. Coffee (or tea) and cakes, organized activities, disorganized activities, a meeting room, and a place to just escape from the pressures of everyday life are all part of the offering of the Community Library. 

In July 2014, North East Lincolnshire Council's (NELC) Library Service was faced with a cut of £500,000 from its £3 million budget and, after consultation, considered two proposals. One proposal was to keep the area's four "core" libraries in Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and Waltham, and enable local groups to take on other "localised library services". An alternative option was to keep all 10 libraries but with drastically cut opening hours. In the end, it was the first of these proposals that were adopted.

In Scartho, the bid to run the service was won by Foresight, which was well established in Grimsby's Freeman Street and already ran a series of successful lunch clubs across the town – including one in Scartho.

Initially, it was hoped that the library would re-open on January 5th 2015. However, legal issues delayed the signing of the lease, which put back the opening date until 18th November 2015.

Speaking just before the opening, Foresight older persons' services coordinator Lynne Smith said: "We are keeping it as a library but hoping it can be used for different activities as well. Lynne said: "My ambition is that we have a place where people can connect and be able to come and make friends and feel there is somewhere for them to go."

Now that we are fully open we are keen to stress that Scartho Community Hub exists to serve the community of Scartho as a library and community hub.