WHILE Birmingham has started work on its new £200-million city library, and Brighton has planned, built and picked up international design awards for its Jubilee Library, Herefordshire Council continues to talk about the need to build a new city library. In its present Broad Street building there are no public toilets, no air- conditioning, poor disabled access and cramped computer suites. But what can you expect from a building that’s 135 years old?
For nearly a decade the council has been talking about giving the county a modern library to be proud of. Like Norwich or Winchester, both of whom set off on the same quest at the same time; both of them now have internationally-acclaimed state-of-the-art libraries in use.
Herefordshire Council’s programme of procrastination began back at the turn of the century. After short-listing four potential sites for a new city library, it ducked its head back into the sand for a couple of years. Then, with the first hints of the Livestock Market project came a new promise: a library would form part of a new Civic Centre. Selected developer Stanhope’s masterplan even spoke of a ‘cultural quarter’, to follow closely after the first-phase Retail Sector, with the promised civic centre now re-branded as the Herefordshire Centre.
Then in early-2009 the council announced that it was about to purchase the freehold of the former Bulmers HQ in Plough Lane, which it had been occupying as tenant for more than two years. Hello Civic Ivory Tower, goodbye City Library. And not a squeak from the all-seeing Scrutiny Committee.
So book-lovers, it’s back to Square One. And given the Department for Culture, Media and Sports’ £100-million funding ‘black hole’, it won’t be this side of 2119 that anyone on the council will need to worry about building a new library in Hereford. Phew!