The Chambre Hardman exhibition on display at Liverpool Central Library (200)
AN "AFFORDABILITY gap" of £50m has been identified by Liverpool City Council as it prepares to advertise for private sector bidders to revamp the historic central library.
Four developers are interested in competing to win the private finance initiative (PFI) contract to rebuild the Grade ll* listed building.
It means the programme may finally get under way after the council was last year forced to scrap an original proposal to refurbish the William Brown Street building because only one builder was willing to take on the task.
A minimum of two bidders are required under the terms of PFI which sees the developer fund the scheme, which is then repaid by the council over 25 years.
A council report has warned there is an "affordability gap" of £44m on the total repayment bill of £181m. The Government will provide £96m in PFI grant, and the council has budgeted £41m, which leaves a gap of £44m.
When other costs such as moving books are included, the gap rises to £49.5m – but officials are confident the money will be found as the funding shortfall has been included in the council’s medium term financial plan.
The council has examined the option of borrowing £35m to do a smaller programme, but the cost of repayments would come to £94m and would not attract any government grant because it would not be funded through PFI.
Last night, deputy leader of the Labour opposition Paul Brant said it was precisely this type of "failure" to plan ahead which has seen the council labelled the worst in the country in February.
Council leader Warren Bradley said: "This ambitious scheme will create a first class library fit for the 21st century right in the heart of Liverpool.
"It will secure the future of one of the city’s finest cultural buildings as a place where people can come to read, access computers, learn more about their family history and dig back through the archives to find out more about how Liverpool came to be the amazing city it is today."
If all goes to plan, the library will close in April, 2010, and reopen two years later much improved.
It involves much of the library being demolished and rebuilt, instead of just being refurbished.
Extensions at the back of the library, built in the 1950s and 1970s, will be bulldozed and replaced with modern reading, lending, computing and audio areas.
The city’s priceless archives will be moved into a purpose-built genealogy centre, called Liverpool Memories, making it more accessible than ever.
The picturesque Picton reading room and mothballed international library will be refurbished to make them fit for the 21st century.
Some £8m will now be spent on that part of the project, twice as much as the original scheme.
On Friday, the council’s executive board is expected to approve the formal advertising of the contract.
Cllr Brant said: "The Central Library has been allowed to decay by the current council leadership and urgent action is required.
"The Lib-Dems failed to plan for the money needed for Capital of Culture, and residents will say ‘here we go again’.
Residents deserve a clear plan showing how this money will be found, and it isn’t good enough for the Lib-Dems to say they will leave the problem to future administrations to sort out.
"Mortgaging the future, with no plans on how to pay the bills, is the kind of action which has got Liverpool City Council declared by the Audit Commission the worst financially managed council in the country."
