Dear Bellman,
Further to my letter of April 1st, thanks to Aberdeenshire Council Business Services, I now have the breakdown of the £286,533 cost of essential repairs to Stonehaven library. These repairs were first identified in 2019 and the Council’s inability to fund them seems to be the main reason why they are currently examining the possibility of transferring the library to Viewmount. The costs are given in the table below and have been estimated at current prices.
While I have no reason to doubt that this work needs to be undertaken at some stage, I would still question why the overall cost figure has been given such prominence in the current debate about the future of the library. If you look at the table carefully you will see that the repair to the lift was completed in 2023 (regrettably for those who needed to use it four years after the problem was first identified). This means that the cost of the outstanding repairs is in fact £248,139. Why is the higher figure the one still being quoted and used to justify the move to Viewmount?
There are a number of repairs on the list which seem relatively minor. These could have been undertaken gradually if a work programme had been developed at some point in the time that has elapsed since the work was identified as being required. What attempts, if any, have been made to develop such a programme of work? Why has some of the work not been carried out as part of regular maintenance, for example clearing out blocked gutters and fixing localised leaks to prevent these problems becoming more serious?
Two of the items on the list: Floor finishes and Internal walls do not appear to be an immediate concern. As a regular library user, I have never noticed anything particularly amiss with the floor. If that is the case why then is the £42,600 involved still being incorporated into the headline figure purporting to show that the library is unaffordable in its existing site. The same could probably be said for the £35,550 listed under Redecoration but there is not enough information provided here to identify what work needs to be carried out and how crucial it might be.
The most alarming item is listed under External walls; renew deteriorating pointing to east elevation at a cost of £105,288. If the pointing was deteriorating in 2019 why was it not addressed immediately? How much worse is the problem now and how much extra work will be needed to put it right? As far as I can tell what seems to have happened to the wall is that a section of the pebble-dashed covering has either collapsed or been removed exposing the underlying stone structure and that section certainly needs repointing. I don’t know if it is only the exposed section that needs repaired but the figure of £105,288 does seem excessive to my mind. How was this figure determined? What process would have been put in place to ensure that any bid was competitive? More questions than answers, it seems.
The Council will say, of course, that there is no money for any of this. Yet, money was available to appoint someone to develop, organize and facilitate the rather inadequate ‘engagement sessions’ in Stonehaven library and to analyse the information garnered and present a report to Council Officers. How much did those sessions cost? And how much money was spent on the architectural plans of what the library presence would look like in Viewmount, that were so prominently displayed during the sessions? And that is without even considering how much it will cost to move the library from its existing site to Viewmount and how much will need to be spent on making Viewmount fit for purpose to serve as a library. Where will that money come from?
The existing Stonehaven library building has been seriously neglected in the six years since the survey of the library’s maintenance needs was first produced with much essential work not being carried out due to a supposed lack of resources. Yet in that same time period the Council has spent £3,500,00 refurbishing Viewmount. That building was opened to great acclaim in July 2022 as a key customer service point only to close to the public less than two years later, in April 2024. It has remained virtually empty ever since as another example of the improper stewardship of Council finances. I think we deserve better.
I have sent a copy of this letter to Chris Murphy, Live Life Aberdeenshire Senior Manager in the hope of answers to at least some of the questions raised here.
Yours etc.,
Kirby Porter