Birmingham Library could become ‘unsafe to occupy’ without £11 million works
The Library of Birmingham risks becoming ‘unsafe to occupy’ without £11 million in maintenance works over the next ten years, it has been revealed.
And the building will require more than £3 million of this over the next three years, in order to ‘keep Birmingham City Council’s most iconic building’ in a good state of repair.
Due to go before cabinet on September 8, the council looks set to approve the costs, with a consultancy company called in to assess the current and future maintenance required.
The library has not had any cyclical maintenance since opening in 2013, with several areas needing attention including emergency lighting, security systems and networks, escalators and painting and decorating.
“The funds will be utilised to keep Birmingham City Councils most iconic building the Library of Birmingham in a good state of mechanical, structural and decorative repair not only for the Citizens of Birmingham but people from other areas of the country and abroad,” papers from next week’s meeting note.
“Thus, keeping it safe and in compliance with various Health and Safety legislation, maintaining its iconic appearance and status and retaining/increasing footfall of Library Service users and Visitors.”
Without the works, the papers continue, the “overall condition would mean that it would soon become unsafe to occupy and various breaches of health and safety law incurred with very serious legal implications as a consequence.”
“A building with poor maintenance of systems, poor decoration, poor condition of building fabric would impact on the Library of Birmingham’s prestigious and iconic status,” the papers continue.
“Visitor numbers are put at risk, commercial opportunities such as the Gala Dinner /Conferencing and Café would suffer and cause damage to significant income streams for the council.”
The Library of Birmingham was closed to the public earlier this year in line with Coronavirus guidelines, only opening again last month for an ‘order and collect’ service.
This has now been extended to a regular ‘book browsing and borrowing service’ as of September 2, with visitors encouraged to ‘just turn up, browse, select, and borrow’.
