Cllr Jon Collins, leader of the City Council, told another councillor he thought he was ‘talking out of his ****’ at a meeting about the decision to sell Nottingham Central Library site.
This comment was directed towards Conservative councillor Jim Armstrong, who called into question the decision today (Wednesday December 7) to decide whether selling the site of the Central Library was reasonable or not.
Armstrong was joined by Cllr Andrew Rule in questioning the council’s proposal to turn the library’s site in Angel Row into Grade A office space.
Collins said the decision was necessary in order to bring jobs and investment into the city.
Armstrong cited there was 22,000 square foot of available Grade A space, which Collins said there was no evidence of.
He then said he thought Armstrong was ‘talking out of his arse’, a comment which fellow councillor Georgina Culley said was inappropriate.
Collins replied with: “Well, he was.”
We need to do something new and different
The council leader said the decision to sell the site to Henry Boot Limited was in order to ‘kill two birds with one stone,’ as the development company will provide money for the library to be renovated.
This would happen at the end of a 12 month period in which plans would be drawn up for the office space, as well as the new library and a temporary one until the new one could be put in place.
Collins said: “We either discuss this or don’t, and if we don’t then we don’t get a new central library.
“We can’t go out and burrow revenue in a brand new bespoke central library, we want to provide services we think people want while being cost effective.”
He added the public would be consulted in the decisions over the look and services provided in the library at a later date, and that a new library was in the City Council’s manifesto.
“I don’t think that in its current stage, it’s of our age,” he said.
“It’s old fashioned and needs work, we need to do something new and different.”
The site has never been an office space
Culley commented the decision didn’t seem to be about a better provision of library services, but rather about the office space.
She said: “There are plenty of locations that could be developed – the site has never been an office space.”
Collins argued that there may well be a lot of sites, but very few were in City Council ownership and the council couldn’t provide financial support for the development.
He cited that both IBM and Hastings Direct looked at offices in Nottingham but did not find appropriate space, preventing the creation of 300 and 250 jobs respectively.
The council decided that they would continue with the sale of the site to Henry Boot Limited.
Culley said: “I’m very disappointed that the city may end up without a library.”
Rule added: “They need to have all the contingencies addressed and a proper plan before they go into negotiations with the developer.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised, I think there’ll be a period of ongoing monitoring to be done to see how they get on with the developer going forward.”