A LAST-MINUTE rescue plan has been hatched to save the historic Hove Library, The Argus can reveal.

Green and Conservative councillors have joined forces to stave off the sell-off threat for the Carnegie building this year at a crunch meeting tonight and explore additional funding to secure its longer-term future.

The council amendment seems set to spell the first major defeat for Labour since they were voted back into office last year.

The administration is proposing to close the Edwardian library and sell it for £1 million to fund an extension of Hove Museum, with the library moved into the museum.

Council leader Warren Morgan has warned up to seven community libraries could close if the sale is stopped leaving the council facing possible legal action over its lack of citywide provision.

The days leading up to tonight's crunch meeting have seen increasing animosity between the parties with Cllr Morgan accusing opposition councillors of voting down the library plan to score a political victory and boost individual’s political careers.

This provoked a heated response from his Conservative counterpart Geoffrey Theobald while Green MP Caroline Lucas also weighed in on the issue.

Labour party members have been doorstepping residents with specially-created leaflets described by one resident as “propaganda garbage”.

Late last week Cllr Morgan unveiled a suggestion that the sold off Carnegie building could be converted into a boutique cinema although discussions with Curzon Cinemas are only at a very early "expression of interest” stage.

Forty-six pages of council papers were released just 48 hours before today’s crunch meeting and days after Government guidance states that they should be published.

Five options proposed include moving the library to Hove Town Hall or retaining the library service in the upper floors of the Carnegie although a change of use for the latter is considered “unlikely to be satisfactory” to planning because of the loss of library service provision.

Council officers also warned that retaining the library in its current building with an income generating business below would leave a savings gap of £85,000.

Moving Hove Museum into Hove Library has also been dismissed by council officers who claim there would not be enough space although expanding into the library’s basement is still being explored.

Proposals to extend the council’s Libraries Extra to the Carnegie to cut staffing costs has been deemed unsuitable for a large multi-roomed library with many hidden corners and blind spots.

Green group convenor Phelim MacCafferty said the lack of time to consider the full business case was "scandalous" and "no way to make proper decisions".

He added: “Our preliminary analysis suggests that there are still significant risks in the plans, which will lead to a significant deterioration in the quality of the library service for the people of Hove as well as the loss of a local cultural treasure.”