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Shelved for
100 years - Polly Marshall investigates as Brighton's library
saga turns a new page
Oh Lord
won't you give us
A central library
Brighton ain't got one
And Sussex got three.
Not strictly
true, of course, but this paraphrasing of Janis Joplin's
Mercedes Benz prayer has long been the plea for Brighton's
bookworms.After all, readers here have only been waiting about
100 years for a new library. Now at last, from July 7-11,
Brighton & Hove Council is to exhibit plans, financed by
the controversial Private Finance Initiative PFI, to build a
new library on the car park and wasteland - known as the
Jubilee Street Site -by Prince Regent swimming pool in North
Laine. Hallelujah.
Another
reader's prayer might be: save us all from Vantage Point, the
library's temporary home. It is a piece of compromise that
pleases no one except building regulators but was at the time
the only place available within a mile of central Brighton
with floors strong enough to hold the shelves.
Brighton
Library was formed by the Royal Literary and Scientific
Society in 1869. It moved into its Church Street home in 1902,
previously royal servants' quarters connected to the Pavilion.
The site was intended to be temporary, but the library stayed
there for 97 years, despite flooding in the 1980s which
damaged rare books.
If 97 years was
'temporary', then let us pray the library will only stay for
the promised three years in its present home Vantage Point -
its lease has already been extended because of delays in
funding paperwork.
As a keen
girlie swot I love few things more than losing myself in the
library's noble reference and rare books collections. These
are truly amazing, and include mediaeval manuscripts, a
sixteenth century Trinum Magicum witchcraft book bound in
human skin, Florence Nightingale's notes, Turner's sketchbook
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's personal library.
Like many
readers, I was dismayed on visiting Vantage Point, now
Brighton's Central Library where borrowing has dropped by 25
per cent, to find a vile wedge of 70s architectural brutalism,
benefiting from the fulsome traffic fumes of Preston Circus
and vistas on to New England Street industrial units. Local
activities include juggernauts reversing over pavements and
cars zooming round the junction of Elder Place inches from the
library main entrance.
I was suffering 'sick reader syndrome' and needed hard facts
from the librarians, civil servants and councillors
responsible.
But first, the
background. Over three decades, three different authorities
have governed Brighton: in 1974, Brighton Borough Council
handed over to East Sussex County Council. In 1997, ESCC
relinquished control to current incumbents, Brighton &
Hove Council.
Last summer, to
make way for a bigger gallery, the library was kicked out of
Church Street to Vantage Point, with local studies moving to
the old Music Library building. Everything else, including the
Music Library, moved to Vantage Point for three years while
the new library is being built. The local studies centre will
then move back to the old reference library. Please keep up at
the back, it's really very straightforward.
Now, almost a
year later, three different architects' models of the new
library go on open display. Public feedback goes to a project
board of six civil servants and one elected councillor, which
makes recommendations to the policy and resources committee.
The chosen
design will be announced in September, with plans to complete
the building in October 2002. The whole Jubilee Street site,
of which the new library is just a part, is to be developed.
The remainder becomes a new public space in North Laine, with
retail, housing, workshops, cafés and a hotel, a new public
square and a space for art giving the space funky décor.
Lottery cash,
£30m of it for refurbishing the Dome Complex, can't be used
for libraries. Central Government funding comes from Deputy
Prime Minister John Prescott's Department of Transport, Chris
Smith's Department of Culture, Media and Sport doesn't provide
a penny for libraries, but is generous with guidelines
suggested for the service.
Brighton &
Hove Council doesn't have the capital to build a new library -
of £3.5m put aside to build the new Brighton Central library,
East Sussex County only gave Brighton & Hove a measly
£1.5m. So all hail PFI, which funds new public buildings in
partnership with business money.
The private
partner builds and pays for the building, then leases it to
Brighton & Hove for 25 years, after which time the
building should revert to council ownership, though this is
decided in the contract drawn up with the chosen private
sector partner. PFI is cheap now but expensive in the long
run, and has been roundly criticized by those who believe
public services should be funded by public money.
Councillor
Keith Taylor (Green), concurs: "Greens are opposed to
private sector funding for municipal projects, currently the
only way local authorities are allowed to fund huge new
projects. We think this is a way of securing essential
benefits now but committing future generations to pay for
them. Bear in mind these private sector partners are entering
into these huge deals with an intention of making big
profits."
Brighton &
Hove Council invited three business consortia and their chosen
architects to tender for building the new library. These
consortia are: Mill Group, one of whose members is Norwich
Union, bidding with local Lomax Cassidy Edwards architects;
the Jubilee Partnership, which has American interests behind
it and teamed up with RH Partnership architects in Bond
Street; and Rotch Properties, partnered with London architects
Shepherd Robson. When I asked for details of the businesses
involved in consortia, council spokespeople were unable to
provide information, as it is commercially sensitive.
Amanda Saville,
head librarian, welcomed me to her tiny office in the eaves of
the Royal Pavilion. So, what's different now? I asked her.
"This time it's going to happen. There's lots of goodwill
and we can provide a fantastic service. Because of PFI we'll
have a better building than if we were working with public
sector money. We're learning from past mistakes, it's a steep
learning curve. We're working with the Regency Society,
library users group and traders.
"Before
local government reorganisation, the two schemes that failed
were ESCC schemes. Brighton & Hove Council didn't exist
then. Because it's a unitary authority every service comes
from the same place so there's more integrity. I can imagine
people have become dispirited as library building plans have
failed twice in recent history. I intend to make sure a new
library is built."
Amanda has an
impressive track record, having seen to completion a new
library at St John's College, Cambridge. But Church Street was
a temporary home in 1902 and the library stayed there for 97
years. I asked her if she could be sure history won't repeat
itself at Vantage Point?
"It won't.
We have to pay a lot of rent for Vantage Point. We know it's
not suitable and we have to build a new library."
Next stop the
Kremlin, as Brighton & Hove Council building is
affectionately known. Katharine Pearce, manager of the Central
Library Project, does her darnedest to clarify the Byzantine
intricacies of PFI for me. "If the building was £7m,
without the private sector money, we wouldn't be able to
afford it. After 25 years, we can have the building back for a
nominal amount. Bidders are not assuming it is something they
can keep." she explained.
PFI is not
popular. This was echoed by a leading councillor who told me:
"PFI costs more in the end. It is wrong in absolute
terms. But it's the only way we can get the money." For
all this, Katharine is excited about the new Jubilee Street
Site as she unrolls the plans: "It'll be a plaza with
limited traffic access, bars and hotels open till midnight,
shops and artists' workshops, and a percentage set aside for
an art project. One idea is a plasma wall with moving images
projected on to it." The library itself will be a green
building. Geoff Bennett, senior planning officer for Brighton
& Hove campaigned for sustainable development for decades.
"We'd
really like to encourage people to give us their views. We
work in isolation, and people's views will feed through into
the final proposals."added Katharine.
Ian Duncan is
Brighton's executive councillor for culture and regeneration,
aka Minister of Fun in the council cabinet. "I hope it'll
be the hub of a new civic space. It's been a mess
forever." he tells me.
"PFI is
transparent, it's accountable. On paper it looks more
expensive, but we haven't got the money to put upfront. We've
been trying to solve this problem for 100 years, the mechanism
of PFI is allowing us to do this."
Ian tells me
extraordinary things about local government reshuffles of the
70s and 90s. Worst of all was the 1971 demolition - to make
way for a multi-storey car park that never was of the National
School, a beautiful 1829 Regency Gothic building on the
Jubilee Street site, which was destroyed hours before its
Grade I listing was confirmed. Ian goes on to explain about
ownership and development of the site: "Tarmac owns
several bits of the land. So the PFI consortia have been
reconstructed to exclude Tarmac. It's a myth that someone's
making money. The site's not worth much, it probably has
negative value. It's been sitting there like a bombsite. Brown
sites are ****-off difficult to develop, you find all sorts of
crap underneath."
Right now a
positive team is working hard at the Council in consultation
with local people. New Insight readers can do their bit by
viewing the plans at the Pavilion Theatre, New Road on Friday
July 7 to Tuesday July 11 for a happy ending to a long story.
Brighton
Library History
1970 Jubilee
Street site earmarked for
development.
1989 Plans for
ice rink with multi-storey carpark.
1990 Worthing,
pop 99,000 has better library than Brighton & Hove, pop
229,000.
1991 Geoffrey
Theobald, then East Sussex County Council conservative leader
and now Tory councillor for Patcham plans to demolish the old
Court House and Music Library in Church Street, to make way
for a new library.
1993 ESCC cuts
library jobs and axes 100 year old bookbinding service.
1995 ESCC
announces national architecture competition for Brighton's
£3.5m new library. Winner, chosen October 1995, is ESCC's own
architecture department. Competition cost £40,000.
Hoohah erupts
over ESCC ultramodern glass design with wavy roof and frontage
on Church Street. Royal Fine Art Commission -which adored
Brighton Centre - says proposal "too high and too
ugly." ESCC comes up with alternative design in Prince
Charles supermarket style, and awards itself planning
permission. Eventually Home Secretary steps in and chucks out
the plans altogether.
1996 More
controversy as, during unseemly local government handover from
ESCC to Brighton & Hove Council, ESCC decides to hang on
to its £3.26m Brighton library development money, plus
interest. Examining small print in the big book of rules for
hanging on to your cash when reorganising local government,
ESCC decides to give only one third of the cash as Brighton
& Hove population is one third of East Sussex's total of
750,000.
ESCC Lib Dem
councillors ensure dosh stays in the county by boycotting a
libraries sub-committee meeting where decision to be taken,
leaving insufficient members to take a vote.
1999 Councillor,
now Mayor, Andy Durr of Brighton & Hove Council announces
we will have the 'biggest library in the South,' at a cost of
only £1.5m - thanks to the miracle of PFI. Library is last
element of Brighton's cultural centre with refurbished Dome,
Corn Exchange, Pavilion Theatre, museum and art gallery, at
cost of £50m, £30m of which is lottery money, the remainder
made up of bits and bobs including European single
regeneration funds.
copyright New Insight 2000
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