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COULD NEW LIBRARY BE SUNK BY FLOODS?

29-04-2008

Birmingham’s controversial proposals for a new library have been hit by a double blow over the last few days. A warning from the Environment Agency that developers should beware of basement buildings has been followed by the shock departure of a key staff member.

The library – due to cost £193 and be open by 2013 – is almost certain to have an underground archive section; that’s the only way it can be squeezed into its new site between the Rep Theatre and Baskerville House.

Yet on Friday, the Birmingham Post reported that the city’s water table has risen by four metres, or 13 feet in the last three decades because it hasn't been used by industry (http://tinyurl.com/6kqerj).

That prompted the Environment Agency to say: "We have looked at the eight to nine bore holes in the A4040 ring road in Birmingham and the water is all at different levels due to variation in geology, but all are rising.

"As for flood risk, there are implications for new buildings that have lower basements or car park basements. We advise designers and planners about the issue and they are trying to mitigate against it."

That’s brought forward an appropriately ‘dry’ response from Alan Clawley, whose leading the campaign to save existing Central Library in Centenary Square.

"Presumably the designers of the new library will have an exemption from Councillor Whitby to build four storeys of book storage below ground level on the site of an old canal.”

The Stirrer also understands that the library’s Head of Local Studies, Peter Drake, abruptly left his post at short notice on Friday after 35 years service.

Apparently he was unhappy at recent changes in the Local Studies Section - as extensively featured on The Stirrer (see link here and see link here and here).

On the day Drake left, he sent colleagues an acerbic email that was sharply critical of management policies.

A number of library staff talk off the record about their disquiet at the direction in which the service is heading, not least the behaviour of highly paid management consultants Capita.

Clawley comments: “The Scrutiny Committee of the Council should investigate the quality of the service in the Central Library instead of spending its time worrying about where the money is coming from to build a new one.

"What's most important about a library is not the building but the service that is offered to the public.

"Whether that service is housed in an old Victorian building, a 1970s Brutalist ziggurat, or the most brilliant piece of architecture in the world, if it is badly run, under-staffed and under-funded it will lose the loyalty and enthusiasm of its workforce and the support of the public.

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