14 STOREY TIME AT THE LIBRARY

24-01-2007

Campaigners fighting to preserve Birmingham Central Library are warning that a replacement building in Centenary Square could be 14 storeys high - or else swallow up the nearby Peace Gardens. It's been announced that a major debate on the future of the library will be hosted by Stirrer editor Adrian Goldberg.

The Birmingham Post is reporting today (www.icbirmingham.co.uk) that plans for a new “split site” central library look set to be abandoned. Council leader Mike Whitby had supported the ideaof alending section based in Centenary Square with archives at Eastside.

This always seemed a fanciful, not mention extremely inconvenient solution, and the brief submitted to consutants Capita Symonds who are examining the various options left open the possibility of a single site library.

That now appears to be their favoured solution, not least because it is more likely to attract government support for PFI funding, but Alan Clawley who wants the existing library preserved is warning that a single building of 30,000 square metres could have an alarming impact on the landscape.

“A building of that size in the space next to Baskerville House would have to be 14 storeys high. That would need a change of planning policy because it would be completely out of keeping with the scale of the other buildings. It would bea bulky tower.

"As an alternative they could go underground, but that would mean people working and studying in dingy, artifical light which is hardly ideal. Or there's the possibility toto expand across the road and take out some of those lovely gardens.

"It all seems an awful lot of fuss and money for something not much bigger than they've already got."

The current library is almost 25,000 square metres and Alansays that none of the main parties is considering what he regards as the most sensible option - to refurbish the existing central library.