A POPULAR charity bookshop in Queanbeyan is looking for a new home.

The Queanbeyan Leagues Club property on Monaro Street where the Lions Community Bookshop has been operating from rent free for the past four years is being re-developed, and the bookshop has been told it will need to move.

“They [Queanbeyan Leagues Club] are re-developing the site where the bookshop is,” Queanbeyan Lions Club secretary Karen Abbott told CityNews.

“The Leagues club owns four shops similar to ours, a three-storey building next door to us, and the building where Goodwin Homes and Meals on Wheels are.

“No-one seems to know the details of the re-development, even though they have asked everyone to vacate by December.”

Since its inception, the Queanbeyan Lions Community Bookshop has raised more than $130,000 for community projects, from the sale of donated books at its Monaro Street premises.

“The leagues club have been very generous to us over the years, we’ve basically had the shop rent-free, which is why we have been able to raise so much money over the years because we haven’t had to pay commercial rent,” says Abbott.

The club is hoping someone might come to its rescue by offering peppercorn rent.

“We are looking to stay in the CBD and we are ideally looking for something rent free,” says Abbott.

“We are also going to need storage space, unless we can move from one premises to another, so we are looking for a very kind person to come forward who may have empty storage that we can keep thousands of books and shelving in.”

CityNews contacted the Queanbeyan Leagues Club seeking information about the re-development.

The club’s general manager Jeremy Wyatt said: “At the moment I have no plans that I am able to distribute for the club.”