Two former library buildings are expected to soon be sold by Leeds City Council, it can be revealed.

Following a freedom of information request from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Leeds City Council has confirmed another four sites set to be sold in the coming weeks in order to raise funds.

Those include the former Methley Library, which closed in 2015, and the former Guiseley Library, which relocated to Aireborough Leisure Centre. The other two properties include 1 Barden Place in Armley and the former caretaker’s house at St Francis of Assisi School in Morley – two buildings no longer in use.

The Barden Place site is going to be offered at auction this month, while the caretaker’s house and former Guiseley Library site are now “targeting a later auction date”.

Leeds City Council added the former Methley Library was “now unlikely to be sold via an auction”, but did not offer any more information as to how the sale would take place.

This adds up to 11 sites the council hopes to sell by the end of the year, as seven sites were previously earmarked for sale by the authority, including Otley Civic Centre, Temple Newsam’s East Lodge, as well as land at Hill Crest in Swillington and Lea Farm Road in Kirkstall, all set to be put up for sale by auction imminently. The council also hopes to bring Potternewton Park’s East Lodge in Chapel Allerton, the former Royal Park Primary caretaker’s house in Hyde Park and 100 Town Street, Armley, to auction in December.

Leeds City Council has repeatedly warned it needs to urgently find funds to plug next year’s expected funding gap, thought to be around £119m, which was caused partly by pressure on services from Covid-19.

A meeting of Leeds City Council’s Executive Board on September 24 discussed a list of four council-owned sites being brought forward for sale to help raise extra funds to plug the impending budget gap, but did not reveal them for commercial reasons.

The report discussed at the meeting said: “The information contained in the confidential appendix 2 attached to this report relates to the financial and business affairs of the council. It is considered that the release of such information would or would be likely to prejudice the Council’s commercial interests in relation to other similar transactions.

“It is considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing this information at this point in time.”

However, councillors agreed: “The acceleration of the capital receipt programme through a targeted number of disposals by auction and through one to one negotiations, with the first tranche of properties as set out in Confidential Appendix 2 to be taken to auction in October, and to note that a further report detailing additional properties to be included in the Capital Receipt Programme will be brought back to Executive Board.”