Experts cast doubt on Birmingham Central Library 'concrete cancer' claims

Jun 16 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

Government permission to demolish listed buildings is normally only given if the cost of repair bills make renovation impossible.

A 2005 council report stated that “expensive work” would have to be carried out to the roof and wall cladding to make the building structurally sound.

When Scott Wilson engineers met council officials in March 2007 they were told the library was suffering from severe corrosion and there was a high risk that “panels would fall off the building within the next five years unless drastic action is taken”.

Scott Wilson found that the council had carried out no detailed study into the state of the building and no structural assessment.

The firm’s report said: “The association appears to have been made or inferred that defects found in the concrete cladding panels are evidence that there is a general deterioration of the concrete forming the structure of the building. There is no evidence to support this link.”

A council spokeswoman insisted the absence of detailed structural reports was “irrelevant” because the building could never be adequately re-modelled, even with substantial investment, to meet the requirements of a modern library.

She said the council had never suggested the “frame of the building” was structurally unsound.

Alan Clawley, spokesman for Friends of the Central Library, called on the council to apologise to John Madin for “maligning” the standard of his work.

Mr Clawley added: “Claims that the library building is falling down are completely unsupported by any evidence.

“The council has been perpetuating the myth that it would cost many millions of pounds to repair the building, but this report vindicates what we have been saying.”