Sheffield City Council have told a public Town Hall meeting that all options remain open regarding a controversial plan to lease the Central Library and Graves Gallery building to Chinese developers.
The proposals, first brought to the council by
Sichuan Guodong last November, would see the current building become the city’s first five-star hotel, with the library relocated to a new site in the city centre.
The council have stated that they would seek the remaining of the Graves Gallery in the 1930s building, with a view to moving the art collection to the ground floor.
Sichuan Guodong have been given twelve months to assess the viability of a hotel in the Grade II listed building.
Addressing at times anxious members of the public, Councillor Jack Scott,
Cabinet Member for Community Services and Libraries, said:
“We at the beginning of a very long journey. It is, also, a journey that may not progress at all.”
“We’ve not signed up to do anything for definite, both parties can pull away from this discussion at any time during the twelve month period. ”
Acknowledging that the recent outcry over the handling of a mass tree felling operation had damaged Sheffielders’ trust in the authority, Councillor Scott said the series of meetings served as a way of rebuilding ties with the people of the city.
It was also revealed during the meeting that the short-term costs of urgent repairs to the Central Library building are expected to total £2.2million, and that long-term costs of making the existing site ‘fit for the future’ would be in the region of £30million.
The announcement of the plans has not gone without its critics since November, with many questioning the need for another hotel, and pleading for the council to take its time over a decision.
Rebecca Gransbury, a local book seller who often uses the library, started a petition
calling for the building to remain a library that now has over 10,000 signatures – double the 5,000 required for it to be presented to the council.
Speaking at the meeting after the councillors, she said:
“I don’t think it’s the council’s fault, but there’s not enough information at the moment. We need to have more of these meetings.”
“It’s all a bit one sided – we hear about a lot of the problems of the current library building, but we don’t hear much about the positives – it has a lot. The problem is, really, we can’t balance out the information with any concrete information about the new library.”
The revealing of the plans comes after Sheffield City Council and the Chinese
Sichuan Guodong Construction Group
last August signed a 60-year investment deal totalling £1billion, with £220million to be invested in the next three years.
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