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CONSPIRACY AND BLUSTER

20-11-2009

News that Culture Minister Margaret Hodge is expected in Birmingham on Monday to announce that Birmingham’s Central Library won’t be listed has angered campaigner Alan Clawley. He accuses the government of conspiracy, and the Council of bluster.

Its surely no coincidence that Rt Hon Margaret Hodge, the government minister whose job is to decide whether or not to list the Central Library is visiting Birmingham on Monday, just days before the planning committee decide whether or not to approve plans for the new Library of Birmingham.

Details of her visit are being kept secret from us but the news that she will ignore the official advice of English Heritage and announce her refusal to list the Library has already been leaked .

Friends of the Central Library who were once promised that we would be kept informed of her decision, have not even been invited to meet her during her visit to the city.

The reports, if correct, point to an astonishing conspiracy between a Labour minister and a Conservative council leader that will ignore the well-argued case for preserving a useful building and a piece of 70s architectural heritage in favour of the prospect of lucrative commercial development.

It is well known that Gary Taylor of Argent plc is lining up Paradise Circus for redevelopment. As a young man time is on Gary’s side, which is fortunate for him in the light of the present economic downturn when projects such as Arena Central have been put on hold for thirty years.

But why should the city council be so beholden to the whims of the private sector?

If the minister refuses listing she will not only be party to the destruction and privatisation of a civic enclave in the heart of the city, but she will give her implied consent to a replacement library that is not only architecturally disreputable, too big for its site, and hastily designed, but which will not adequately replace the one we already have.

The new library will have less space for the public because more than two entire floors will be a secure archive store, daylight will not penetrate to the back of the other main floors because they are too large, and the children’s library will be relegated to the basement where there are no views out.

Despite Councillor Whitby’s bluster, it is not too late for him to have second thoughts. There is nothing urgent about libraries, unlike housing or social services.

Starting work on site without planning permission is not only unwise and possibly expensive, it contravenes legal conditions attached to the planning officer’s report.

As it is against the advice given by the planners to applicants we can only interpret the council’s action as a blatant attempt to bounce both the planning committee and Minister Hodge into making the decisions they want next week.

The Council is invited to respond. Just email editor@thestirrer.com