A new library has been opened at a primary school in Clevedon after thousands of pounds were spent on its refurbishment.

The Friends of St Nicholas Chantry Primary School spent almost £11,000 renovating the facility including redecorating, buying new furniture and refitting electrics.

The school managed to successfully apply for a £6,000 grant from The Foyle Foundation to buy new books for the project.

It has so far spent a total of £9,000 on books by using the grant and money raised by PTA fundraising events.

Tom Knott, chairman of the Friends, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to see our lovely new library finally open and full of new books.

“Two years ago the school didn’t really have a functioning library. A fire in 2007 had damaged most of the books and it hadn’t bounced back from that. Most of the books that remained were terribly out of date and tatty.

“We started with a blank page, clearing the room and sorting through the old books and furniture to see what was worth keeping – there wasn’t much.

“The refurbishment project has taken a huge amount of effort from the Friends team and the wider school community, raising funds, planning the layout, purchasing the furniture, sorting the decorating and artwork, liaising with the school on how to run the library and what books to order, and a hundred other things.

“To see all that work come to fruition in a beautiful woodland-themed library is just brilliant.

“Well done to all involved.”

The Friends group is also hoping to win up to £4,000 through the Tesco Bags of Help scheme.

It was shortlisted for the community prize, which uses money raised from the 5p plastic bag levy, last month along with Yatton Youth Club and Portishead Youth Centre.

Any grant received will go towards filling up the library’s new shelves, which are currently two thirds full, with new books.

Clevedon Lions Club also recently gave the school £200 through its Dream Scheme project.

The money was used to buy about 30 books for the new library which was opened by author Amy Wilson.