One of the zombie ideas that is still doing the rounds is that of not going ahead with the Civic Centre Library in order to "save" the smaller libraries. I have refuted this before, but I will now do it again. The suggestion is misguided for three reasons:
1) The Civic Centre contract has been signed (with all party support), and work is underway. Cancelling it would mean the Council be sued by the contractor, being forced to pay for the contract, and then not having a Centre at the end of it. It is also worth noting that disposal of other buildings makes the whole thing a substantial net saving for the Council.
2) Redesigning the library will not save any money, but will in fact cost money. This is because the library is an integral part of the building. The architects and contractors could be told not to build it, but we would then have to spend more to get them to redesign the building. And that is assuming a redesign would not delay the whole project, which it well might.
3) The running costs of the Civic centre library will simply transfer from the old Town Hall Library, which will transfer to the new building.
I have covered the more general case for the Civic Centre here.
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