On 25th May 2023 Sefton’s Cabinet met to discuss the future of the Central Library in Waterloo and a proposal to build a new Library and Community Hub in Crosby.
The report noted the following, in respect of the Waterloo site, comprising the Library and the Civic Hall
“Crosby Library and Civic Hall had been identified as needing very significant investment and as being increasingly challenged in providing for current and future needs as both a library but also as a local community ‘hub’. The Civic Hall element of the existing library has been vacant and effectively mothballed since 2014, expensive to maintain with little or no prospect of future occupation based on similar issues associated with the condition of main library building. “
“The existing Crosby Central Library and Civic Hall have long-standing and significant issues relating to the condition of the building, bringing the long-term viability, in retaining the buildings, into question. Key elements of the building are reaching the end-of-life stage and there is a risk that those elements would be deemed beyond repair if they fail.”
“The existing Central library site is identified as a good opportunity for housing led regeneration with new homes and/or a mix of uses on the site complementary to the surrounding area. A Planning Brief (Appendix B) has been prepared for the site which supports the principles of regeneration and the opportunity to deliver a positive outcome for the local community.”
Earlier in the Agenda Cabinet had met to discuss and approve an Outline Business Case for the proposed new Library but the public were excluded from that part of the meeting.
The Cabinet made 7 resolutions including:
• Noting the significant risk to service delivery associated with the condition of existing Crosby Central Library facility
• Noting the Outline Business Case for the proposed New Library in Crosby at an estimated capital cost of £13.8m
• Authorising the Executive Director (Place) to commence an appropriate procurement process to deliver the Crosby New Library development and
• Authorising the Executive Director (Place) to commence an appropriate soft market testing of the existing Central Library site based on the Planning Brief prepared for the purpose of informing such an exercise.
Waterloo U-Turn
We know that as a result of severe local pressure the Council has had a u-turn on its decision to close and redevelop the Central Library site, even though an extremely detailed Planning Brief was approved by Cabinet on 25th May.
Instead it has commissioned a stock condition assessment presumably to investigate the cost of repair and restoration of the Library and Civic Hall premises.
Question 1. Will the report be published and made public before the May 2024 elections?
Question 2. How does the Council propose to re-use the Civic Hall which, they admit, has been mothballed since 2014?
Question 3. Why is the Council unaware of the condition of the library and civic hall buildings? How can they effectively plan a maintenance regime if they don’t have a detailed knowledge of condition of buildings for which they are responsible?
It is worth noting that since the Council resolved 10 years ago to close several of its much-loved local libraries there has been negligible maintenance carried out on the Central Library site.
Proposed Crosby New Library
On 25th September 2023 the Council issued a press release stating that a planning application had been submitted the previous week. The press release states that:
“The application seeks Outline planning permission for the development of a three-storey building on the site of the Green car park, as well as full planning permission to create a new access to Cooksland car park.
Numerous car parking spaces in the town centre will remain and the Local Authority has carried out extensive surveys to ensure demand for parking in the Town Centre will still be met.
If successful, it will allow for Phase One of the Local Authority’s plans to create the £13.8 million Crosby New Library on the site of the Green car park.
Works to the highway, which will include improved crossing facilitates and public realm works, have already began.”
However, one month later the application has not appeared on the Council’s Planning Website.
Question 4. What precisely is being proposed for the £13.8m investment?
Question 5. If there are plans to build a 3-storey building on the car park, how will the council ensure sufficient car parking spaces for a regenerated village?
Question 6. Does the Council still intend to build housing in the scheme, as they originally stated? This is important as the council resisted applications from private developers to build housing on Central Buildings and Telegraph House, only to have the decisions overturned following costly Appeals?
The Cabinet report in May indicated that “construction company Kier were appointed as lead for the design work with K2 as Architectural Advisors and were tasked to carry out a design process to end of RIBA Stage 2. This process concluded in April 2020 with a detailed full stage 2 design in place for the development as initially scoped providing a library, health local GP health facilities and residential flats. “
Question 7. What process was used to select Kier and at what cost?
The report mentions that
“The inclusion of health within the project comes in recognition of the fact that current primary care premises in the area are generally identified by the South Sefton Clinical Commissioning Group SSCCG (now Integrated Care Board/ Partnership) as not fit for purpose and lack the capacity to deliver current, let alone future integrated and extended community health services. The SSCCG (now ICB/P) recognises the wider social determinants of health and would welcome co-location with social services, library services and well-being services.”
“The health challenges we face locally as an ageing population with poor local infrastructure and push to community based provision has been brought into particular focus over the past two years. We have local GP Service providers keen to link with a project in Crosby and we have the in principle support of the Integrated Care Partnership and Primary Care Network.”
References to South Sefton CCG are now of little relevance, as this organisation ceased to exist after July 2022.
Question 8. Where are the up-to-date commitments from NHS?
The need for modern, integrated health facilities in Crosby is without doubt. Sefton Central Conservatives have written about this for many years, recognising that Crosby is singled out as having no modern clinic or health centre provision.
Question 9. How is this health hub to be funded?
The report does not indicate any evidence that the Council has secured NHS commitment or funding and local GP’s are unaware of whether they would be invited to actively participate.
The answer to the question of funding may lie in the outline Business Case which the Cabinet noted back in May 2023. However, it is curious that a notice has appeared on the website indicating that a meeting of Cabinet on 7th December 2023 is to receive an update to the outline business case for Crosby New Library. However, the report is Exempt, meaning that the public will be debarred from having access to the content, including proposed costs.
Question 10. What consultation will take place with the public about the proposed Crosby Library and Health Hub?
This Labour Council does not believe in public engagement or transparency in its dealings and yet again we are being kept in the dark about their intentions for Crosby Village and the Central Library site in Waterloo.
