Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham: Options A report by the Co-ordinating Overview & Scrutiny Committee Part of Birmingham Central Library Archives: The first folio edition of Shakespeare’s “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, printed 1623. Report to Cabinet: 24th October 2005 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options 2 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options Preface By Councillor Michael Wilkes Chair, Co-ordinating Overview and Scrutiny Committee On behalf of the Co-ordinating Overview and Scrutiny Committee, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the officers from the scrutiny team who have done an outstanding job over long hours to get this report ready against such a demanding timescale. Much midnight oil was burnt and a very wide range of evidence has been drawn together in the preparation of the report and the results condensed from disparate formats. Scheduling meetings for all or part of the committee was itself a considerable task. The resulting report is characteristic of the high quality of work from the scrutiny team. Members could not have been better supported in this challenging exercise. In particular I would like to thank John Cade, Head of Scrutiny, Katie Trout, Scrutiny Officer, Phil Cooper for his precise and exhaustive minuting of meetings and Jayne Power for producing the report. Scrutiny reports represent the advice of a wide cross section of members of the City Council as a whole and I trust that the Executive, in now considering our report on this matter of fundamental importance, will take the views of the premier scrutiny committee fully into account and take action accordingly. 3 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options Contents 1 Reasons for Review and Terms of Reference 7 1.1 The Library of Birmingham Project 7 1.2 The Cabinet’s Decision of 25 July 2005 8 1.3 Issues for the Review 8 1.4 The Approach to the Review 9 2 Findings 11 2.1 Summary of Evidence 11 2.2 Strategic Director of Development: Background 11 2.3 Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture supported by the Strategic Director of Learning and Culture and the Assistant Director of Community Learning and Libraries: Library considerations 14 2.4 Interim Head of Paid Service 16 2.5 Consultants who undertook the Central Library Options Appraisal (January 2005) 19 2.6 Councillor John Hemming, MP (Deputy Leader at the time of the Options Appraisal) 22 2.7 Councillor Sir Albert Bore, Leader of the Labour Group 23 2.8 Cabinet Member for Regeneration supported by the Strategic Director of Development : Regeneration Context 26 2.9 Richard Rogers Partnership 27 2.10 Library Steering Group 31 2.11 City Design Advisor, Planning 32 2.12 Background Briefing Papers 34 2.13 Consultation 35 2.14 Contributions from Members of the Public 36 3 Conclusions and Recommendations 45 3.1 Context 45 3.2 The Options 45 3.3 Recommendations 46 3.4 Recommendation 1 47 3.5 Recommendation 2 55 3.6 Recommendation 3 55 3.7 Recommendation 4 56 Appendix 1 Terms of Reference 57 th Appendix 2 Public Part of Cabinet Report of 25 July 61 Appendix 3 Briefing Papers 65 Appendix 4 People’s Panel Report 105 4 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options Appendix 5 Submission by Steering Group for Birmingham Library 147 Appendix 6 Central Library Facts and Figures 155 Appendix 7 Relevant Footfall Data 157 Appendix 8 Background Papers 159 Appendix 9 Financial Documents 161 5 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options 6 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options 1 Reasons for Review and Terms of Reference 1.1 The Library of Birmingham Project 1.1.1 The provision of improved central library facilities for Birmingham has been the subject of intensive work for the past six years. It has been accepted that there is serious deterioration in and fundamental drawbacks with the existing building in Paradise Circus which would be expensive to rectify. 1.1.2 The approach to the new library has been very ambitious, with the City Council looking for an unprecedented improvement in the city’s library provision. Whilst the existing central library is already one of the most visited places in the city, the intention is to open out still further access to learning, information, and artistic and cultural experience. 1.1.3 A project of this magnitude, with such large potential benefits, clearly merits very careful and thorough consideration on an appropriate basis of evidence in weighing the different possible courses of action. The City Council prepared a prospectus for a new library in 2001 and consulted widely with library users and non-users. In November 2002, the Council published an early concept design for a proposed new library on Eastside. Discussion and consultation continued throughout 2003 and 2004, and detailed work was undertaken by a team of consultants engaged in August 2004 to appraise the various options. 1.1.4 Cabinet considered a report on 28 February 2005, which set out the progress of the options appraisal. The decision was to carry out further work leading to the identification of a preferred option and the development of a full outline business case. It was also decided to prepare a first stage expression of interest in PFI funding. The consultants’ report itself was not put into the public domain in any form on the grounds that it contained detailed financial information which could have been of use to potential future tenderers. 7 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options 1.2 The Cabinet’s Decision of 25 July 2005 1.2.1 The work commissioned in February was reported to the Cabinet in July 2005, and this led directly to the setting up of this scrutiny review. The report prepared for Cabinet recommended a preferred option of a two site solution for the new Library of Birmingham. It would comprise a new building in Centenary Square for the lending services and reference resources to be known as the Knowledge Centre, with a new facility, the Library of Birmingham Archive & History Centre within a Birmingham Heritage Centre of national significance at or near Millennium Point. 1.2.2 The Cabinet acknowledged the report’s preferred option, commissioned more detailed feasibility studies and approved the appointment of a project team to deliver the Library of Birmingham. In acknowledging, rather than agreeing the preferred option, Cabinet referred the issue to Overview and Scrutiny for a short focussed review before a formal decision is made. 1.3 Issues for the Review 1.3.1 Our first step was to brief ourselves on the position reached and the work which had already been done. 1.3.2 We were immediately struck by the surprising lack of clarity which existed about the various proposals. For example: • what was to be the intended form of the unit at Eastside in the two centre option? What would be the quality of the build? Would this be a completely separate building from Millennium Point, an extension of Millennium Point or would the content be housed within Millennium Point? Could all these alternatives really have the same cost? • in the two-centre options, which facets of the library service would be housed at each site? There were reports of a split between lending services at Centenary Square and reference and archives at Eastside. Yet no report to Cabinet showed an intention to split the lending and reference services; • what was the planned size of the new library? Different sizes were regularly referred to. Sometimes this was because different sites were being considered, with more or less space being physically available. At other times, as more detailed work was done, the amount of space available on any one site appeared to change. So, for example, on the Eastside site there was one figure associated with the outline architectural brief; another based on the subsequent “concept design” stage; and a third from a later, “space planning” exercise; • what was the likely cost of the scheme? Again different costs could be quoted, emanating from different options and from work 8 Report to Cabinet 24th October 2005 Library of Birmingham : Options done in different degrees of detail. It was not immediately obvious to us how the cost, given in the Cabinet report of July 2005, of £42m for the archive and history facility had been arrived at. 1.3.3 We therefore concluded that a major outcome of our review should be to establish amongst Members and the public a common understanding of the facts concerning each of the options. We therefore set out to investigate whether the various options were specified to the necessary and comparable degree of detail. This would encompass the benefits, both in terms of the library service provided and in terms of social and economic regeneration; and the costs, affordability and funding possibilities of each option. 1.3.4 It was also important to us that some attempt was made to gauge public opinion. We quickly became aware of the amount of effort which had been made throughout the life of the project to consult with and respond to the views of library users and potential users. To supplement this, we wished to do what we could to obtain an up to date assessment, based as far as was possible on a clear statement of the options currently being considered. 1.4 The Approach to the Review 1.4.1 Bearing in mind this need to de-mystify the subject and build a shared understanding of the facts amongst elected Members and the public, then as far as was possible the review was conducted by the full Co-ordinating O&S Committee meeting in public.