DECISION TIME for the OLD LIBRARY is 15th October 24!
“Disposal of the Mill Road Library” is no 4 on the agenda for the County Council’s Assets and Procurement Committee on 15th October.
GOOD NEWS
The petition has now reached 1600 (absolutely brilliant!).
The wonderful supporting comments show just how significant the Old Library is for so many people living in Cambridgeshire and many more with Cambridge connections now living further afield. One signer from Suffolk wrote: “"My grandparents were part of the subscription to build this library for the people of Romsey ."
And 2 highlights from locals:
"Too much of our cultural and social heritage in Cambridge has been lost to developers. Once it is lost from the public domain, it remains lost. The old Library in Mill Road could be a fantastic community arts resource for the entire Cambridge Community. There is so much local support for this project - lots of people have pledged actual (yes!) financial support to try and make this happen.”
“Councillors All, please choose to let the Community Bid WIN to be a beacon of Hope and Goodwill, a precedent for just and truly consultative governance, showing that TOGETHER We Can...IMAGINE !”
BAD NEWS
Although the petition is mentioned in the Committee report the County Council won’t allow it to be formally presented to the meeting. This means that no member of the public can ‘speak to the petition’!
BAD NEWS
The officers’ report is not recommending the Community Bid for approval.
BAD NEWS
The officer recommendation is to sell to the highest bidder. The bidder they are recommending to the councillors is an individual with “a long standing connection to Cambridge” who “has experience of delivering community focused enterprises in more than one London location and offers to complete the sale quickly and has the intention to use the facility for community purposes”.
BUT this highest bidder is not known to the local community (no one in the community has yet been able to identify, or have any clue as to who this bidder might be). In contrast to the Community Bid, which is known to and has the support of over 1000 people.
BAD NEWS: This bidder is giving his bid “unconditionally” and offers to “complete the sale quickly”. These suit the County Council wanting to dispose of the building, but both raise massive alarm bells.
As the community are well aware, this lovely listed building has many challenges and constraints. To resolve these, any preferred bidder will need to be a lot of interaction with both the City and County Councils. 2 notable challenges (among many) are the lack of secondary means of escape (the Fire Officer has limited occupancy to 60 people at any one time), and the limited headroom under the ties which makes it near impossible to insert an upper floor.
The recommended bidder’s plans, as outlined in the report, are a complete fantasy without resolving these issues. Given the challenges, any prudent bidder with knowledge of the building would make their offer conditional, as did Centre 33, the first “preferred bidder”.
Completing the sale quickly would enable the County to be shot of the building, but would leave the City Council and the local community to suffer the consequences. Centre 33 dropped out after finding the challenges too great. There is nothing in the report to show that the County officers have learned any lessons from this; that the new recommended preferred bidder understands the challenges of the building; or that the risks involved in accepting an unrealistic bid have been fully considered. The matrix comparing the bids has a glaring and ludicrous discrepancy under “deliverability” between 145/150 for the proposed preferred bidder and just 25/150 for the well-informed community bid.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
At least 4 local people have applied to be public speakers at the meeting, so local voices will be heard, but the challenge remains to get the Committee to prioritise the community.
What would be very helpful is if Cambridgeshire people can contact their Councillors (as suggested in the previous Update), and the media.
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