Work has begun demolishing Caerphilly town’s old Post Office to make way for a new library and council contact centre.
The new building which will take its place will have a state-of-the-art library offering a wide range of resources for people of all ages including books, DVDs, CDs, games as well as community space, Internet access and reference materials. It will also include a council customer service centre where residents can access a wide range of council services under one roof.
Representatives from Caerphilly County Borough Council and partners involved in the scheme visited the site this week to see the start of works.
Cllr Ron Davies, cabinet member for regeneration said: “This scheme will deliver a much needed community facility in the heart of Caerphilly town centre. It will be a new landmark building located on the historic Twyn Square opposite our magnificent castle and the services on offer will be of benefit to the whole community.
“This development is yet another example of our commitment to the regeneration of our town centres and it’s great to see that work is progressing at the site. We now look forward to seeing the scheme come to fruition over the coming months as anticipation builds for the opening of this fantastic new facility.”
The building was also to be home to Gwent Police, although that plan has been dropped with officers now based in the former offices of the Campaign newspaper which has moved to Newport.
The new Caerphilly library will follow those opened in Bargoed and Risca.
Bargoed Library, which is situated in the old Hanbury Chapel, opened its doors at the end of October 2011. The old Risca Palace cinema reopened in December as a library.
Let us all hope that the council has the sense to make sure it owns this new building and the ground it rests on, rather than saddling us all with paying rent for years to come.
I would bet that this building will be built and owned by a private developer.
The council would have to perform amazing financial acrobatics to find ratepayers money to create such a facility.
The remarkable thing is that the council `appear` to have negotiated, convinced, and promised, a private developer to spend huge amounts of money on a `promise`, i.e. a `sweetheart deal` of some sort. I say this having read all the promises statements made by the Caerphilly council and other senior politicians about this wonderful new facility they are creating in the town, when in fact, to day, the 5th March, we are also being told that no formal arrangements have been agreed between the developer and the council in relation to the occupation by the council of the completed building, we don`t know if the ratepayers of the borough will be lumbered with a PFI sort of arrangement in which million of pounds of ratepayers money will be handed over to the developers to ` in rent by the council and to manage the building` and the ratepayers will not own a brick of it.
Ratepayers of Caerphilly borough need to watch this move very carefully in the coming weeks,at which time the Council are said to be going to make their decisions on this matter, unless of course they are prepared to see their council tax go through the roof in not many years to come.
Caerffili Council is the only council who has wholescale redevelopment of libraries in Wales and probably the wider UK in the current economic climate, that is something to be celebrated…
This will add to the Schools Library service which has been adapted to serve our children and schools better by having books on hand at local libraries, instead of one central location.
There will always be the scaremongers and doom merchants amongst us, it's a pity that when the sun comes out from the long winter such initiatives are looked at with negative statements. We need some Positive Vibes, of which I hear none from any Welsh Government initiatives or Westminster.
This really is welcome news and comments coming from a Cabinet Member of Caerphilly Council James Fussell.
One thing is for sure, Mr Fussell and his five Cabinet Colleagues will have to be very circumspect when it comes to deciding how this development is finally funded, i.e. with public funds and therefore remains in public ownership, or, via a `Blair` Private Funding Initiative, PFI in which case the ratepayers of the borough will not own brick of it, but will pay through the nose by binding the ratepayers of the borough into a very long and very expensive rental agreement, which would also include dreconian service and profit charges year on year.
The ratepayer of the borough will be paying for the latter arrangment for many many years to come, and, the proposed 4.7% rise in Council tax in Caerphilly for 2013/2014 will be swallowed in paying for such a `sweetheart` deal.
Regardless of what this council states in respect to this matter at the moment, he will have an opportunity in the coming weeks to vote on which arrangement he prefers, lets just keep an eye on it and see how it progresses, only then, as I said in my earlier comment, can the people of the borough judge the issue.
It is not healthy for any Councillor to to name call citizens who wish to follow progress on this issue as ` scaremongers` and `doom merchants` in fact, I agree 100% with the proposal to develop this building into a civic amenity, HOW it is done is the question, and finally I would remind Councillor fussell that all public debate is healthy, he would clearly like to dispense with that area of the democratic proccess, unless, I presume, one agrees with him.
It appears that I have been included in the label "scaremongers and doom merchants" by Cllr. Fussel. Not at all, I fully support the idea of a new library in Caerffili and anywhere else for that matter. My concern is that if the library is not owned by the council then it will work out very expensive for the council tax payers of this borough; a very different thing from not supporting the library service.
We have yet to see what agreement is made for this building but I make no apology for sounding the alarm over a possible poor use of money. I sincerely hope that the cabinet makes sure that the new library is owned by the council. To do otherwise would be an extremely foolish decision, in my view, and expose the people of this borough to a long term financial committment.
New Library- Good news, but the way the money is found to build, create, it, appears to be the important thing the ratepayers should be concerned with.
Richard Williams comments are very pertinent, and, confirmed by the processes commented on by Trefor Bond`s comments in relation to what the Caerphilly council has to decide in relation to where the money is coming from for this replacement facility in Caerphilly.
It appears to me that Richard Williams and Trefor Bond agree with Councillor Fussell that such a facility would be an asset for the Borough, This Councillor, who appears to be unhappy with this public discussion appears to be trying to divert attention from the crux of the issue raised by both these, and many other concerned members of the public in Caerphilly, which is the financial arrangements for such a provision, and he appears willing to attack the voters of Caerphilly if they dare to question the current policies of our Plaid Cymru Ron, (opp`s Freudian slip)Plaid Cymru RUN
Council.
And I agree it is unwise, and hypocritical of Councillor Fussell, in the extreem, to be critical of the public whilst at the same time it appears he cannot take the pressure this issue is placed upon him as an ` appointed` Cabinet Member of Caerphilly Council without `throwing his dolls out of the pram`.
It's now September, and I must say there doing a brilliant job on building the new Libary. 🙂