Central Library 2

LOOK BACK IN ANGER

18-03-2008

Birmingham Central Library campaigner Alan Clawley has been trawling his own archives and discovers that plans for a 30,000 square foot replacement were rejected seven years ago for being too small. Now the Council thinks that’s the perfect size. Funny, eh?

Granted, the city has had a change in administration since then, and Labour’s hopes for an “iconic” government backed scheme in 1999 are rather different from the self-funded project put forward by the Progressive Partnership.

Even so, the contradictions are remarkable.

Clawley points out that in 1999 wanted 55,000 square metres but decided it would be impossible to get even 30,000 square metres into its first-choice site, Centenary Square, AND comply with the British Standard for archiving (BS5454 in case you didn’t know).

So they found a bigger site in Eastside. However, the cash for the scheme at that site was never forthcoming. At £130 million, it was obviously too expensive.

Now Council now proposes to build a 30,000 square metre library in Centenary Square, four floors of which will be underground, at a cost of £193 million. There’s been no mention of BS5454 lately, by the way.

Even more curious is the cost of refurbishing the existing 24,000 square
metre library. That was given as £24 million in 1999, but Clawley claims that in just over seven years that has multiplied seven times to £166 million.