Portmore Park & District Residents Association

Supporting local heritage, quality of life and community

PPDRA comments on plans for Weybridge Library

The following comments on the Surrey County Council plans for Weybridge Library Community Hub have been sent by PPDRA to SCC Leader and Councillor for Weybridge, Tim Oliver.

Dear Tim,

Below are some comments from the Committee of Portmore Park & District Residents Association on the Surrey County Council plans for the Weybridge Library building, as set out in the Consultation Planning Application submitted to Elmbridge (EBC 2023/2312) which offered no opportunity for public comment.

We believe the comments below reflect feelings widely held within the local community, and hope that you and the Library Community Hub design team will give them genuine consideration.

Support for aims

  1. We strongly support the use of the Carnegie model to guide and inspire redevelopment of Weybridge Library as a library and integrated community hub.
  2. We are delighted that Surrey County Council has allocated budget for this.
  3. We believe that there is a great opportunity to create an appealing, engaging and popular new library and integrated community hub in the current library building, if a more community-centred design is developed.

Disappointment with current plans and process

  1. We are very disappointed that the current SCC plans for the library building show a lack of imagination and integration, and appear to ignore community input, particularly in the proposals for hub elements on the first and second floors, which seem like little more than refurnishing existing rooms.
  2. We implore SCC to reconsider, and to reshape the design with more community involvement (which we understand is already envisaged for finalising the ground floor library element).
  3. We are disturbed by the opaque planning process by which SCC can grant itself planning consent, without any clear opportunity for public comment on the current plans: EBC says “please consult the relevant authority”, yet the SCC website doesn’t suggest how to do that.
  4. We want to avoid a repeat of the 2004 New Walton Bridge fiasco, when SCC spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money awarding itself planning consent for a deeply flawed, oversized bridge and twin-loop junction design, and on trying to fend off public opposition (happily unsuccessfully, as a public inquiry imposed a much better bridge and junction design which conserved valuable riverside public amenity land and saved Weybridge residents from the extra rat run traffic the twin loop junction would have invited).
  5. We hope for a planning process for the Library Hub where evidence and community input and comments are recorded and publicly visible (an essential element of the EBC planning process).

What a better design can offer

  1. We hope to see an integrated library and community hub created, with:
    1. Appealing, inviting entrances from Church Street and Churchfields
    2. More open and flexible design of the hub elements to meet multiple community uses, creating a desirable destination for all kinds of local residents
    3. Outdoor spaces as well as indoor spaces (including a terrace, and a landscaped seating area by an improved Churchfields entrance, as recommended by Elmbridge Borough Council)
  2. We hope for a design which makes the first floor of the Community Hub a more desirable community destination, through increasing its space and enhancing its facilities, e.g. by:
    1. Extending its area laterally, incorporating doors onto a new open air terrace on the roof of the planned single storey extension, with outdoor seating and tables (thereby, as a visiting county councillor observed, making it a far more profitably lettable space for functions)
    2. Enhancing its catering potential by expanding the kitchen area (in line with comments from Elmbridge Borough Council), not reducing it
    3. Offering cafe facilities for visitors, to help make the hub a genuine local destination
    4. Increasing the flexibility of the internal space of the whole first floor, making it more open and adjustable to accommodate more varied community activities
    5. Providing controllable shading for the west facing windows, to reduce the main room’s greenhouse-like summer heat, without reducing its admirable winter light
    6. Reconsidering the design and location of a business hub element, to make it better suited to use by multiple small businesses and individuals (the current design looks outdated and inappropriate), and thereby enhancing income.

Wider community involvement

  1. We support suggestions by the Weybridge Society for bringing the building to life by having a visibly operating Brooklands Radio live broadcast studio on the ground floor, as part of a more open plan, integrated and flexible hub design, shaped with the help of community input.
  2. We support the views of local EBC councillors that it is essential to have wider community involvement in defining and shaping local community facilities which will serve Weybridge into the future.

Transition arrangements

  1. There are strong local concerns about negative impact on the Centre For The Community of transition period proposals to relocate Library services there, displacing current activities.
  2. We wish to see transition achieved in a way which avoids negative impact on the Centre For The Community.
  3. We would support a proposal to relocate library books to the former bowling green pavilion (subject to relocation of current services provided there to other EBC owned properties) for the duration of any works, with the more socially interactive library services relocated to the Centre For The Community.

Lifetime management costs

  1. We wonder if sufficient consideration has been given to the longer term benefits of investing more now in energy efficient measures (e.g. triple glazing, insulation, heat recovery, etc), which could significantly reduce lifetime energy costs.

 

Thank you again for suggesting that comments are sent to you, in your role as our county councillor.

We sincerely hope that there will now be an opportunity for proper public input into the creation of an amended and improved design for the community hub within an extended library building: a design which is much more community-centred and user-centred than the current proposals.

Kind regards,
Miles Macleod

Chair, Portmore Park & District Residents Association

Elmbridge ‘No objection’ to Weybridge Library Hub plans – with reservations

Elmbridge Borough Council has registered ‘No objection’ to the Surrey County Council plans for Weybridge Library Community Hub redevelopment, with reservations. Surrey has the right to permit or refuse its own plans on Library redevelopments, following due consultation.

Reservations

However, the Elmbridge BC Officer Report requests “that greater consideration is given for the creation of increased community space provision on the first floor, e.g. enlarged kitchen/servery along with break out seating areas for community groups“, and that there is a ‘missed opportunity’ around the treatment of the entrance from Churchfields.

This EBC judgment aligns with some strong local feeling in Weybridge that the Community Hub element requires more space and facilities, and a more thoughtful approach to creating a flexible community Activity Hub on the first floor, to help it become an appealing community destination.

Library vision good, but Community Hub limited

The Library element of the redevelopment proposals, drawing on the Carnegie model, seems very positive in creating a Library which will enable and promote more community involvement, and bring increased cultural, social and learning interaction.

But the small community ‘Activity Hub’ on the first floor misses the opportunity to go beyond the limitations of the current first floor community hall (apart from adding toilets). The majority of the first space is taken up with tightly fitted traditional office desks and chairs, in a large open plan ‘Business Hub’ and in meeting rooms. It even seems to move away from adaptable community use by proposing to turn two potentially flexible current spaces, a Tea Room and Staff Room, into small traditional office-style meeting rooms.

Yes, residents want to see facilities for local business use. But is this an effective design, when there is a golden opportunity to create a well designed integrated Community Hub within the Library building, supporting multiple local activities?

Surrey County Council has a statutory duty to provide Library services, but not wider community facilities, and that rather shows in the proposed design. 

Here is the existing Weybridge Library first floor plan.

Community input overlooked?

During the public consultation phase there were many suggestions about how to make a first floor Community Hub a more desirable community destination, through increasing its space and enhancing its facilities, e.g. by:

  • Extending its space laterally, incorporating doors onto a new open air terrace on the roof of the planned single storey extension, with outdoor seating and tables
  • Increasing the flexibility of the internal space, to accommodate more varied activies
  • Enhancing its catering potential by expanding the kitchen area
  • Offering cafe facilities for visitors, to make it a local destination
  • Providing controllable shading for the west facing windows, to reduce the room’s greenhouse-like summer heat, without reducing its admirable winter light

Support for a more appealing Hub

Proposals for enhancing the plans and shaping the Hub more around what people want received strong support in the WeyBetterWeybridge Stakeholder Reference Group. A visiting Surrey County Councillor at one meeting said that a terrace would be a great idea and a significant improvement. It would greatly enhance the potential income from letting the space for social functions, since many people want the option of access to a terrace and fresh air for function guests.

A Surrey County Council Officer who presented draft plans agreed that a terrace would be an achievable addition to the Activity Hub, at modest extra cost (including repositioning some rooflights), and suggested that it could be added to the planning application as a minor amendment.

Joined up thinking needed

Subsequent local discussions have gone further, and suggested a far more integrated approach to the design of the building’s interior layout, combining the Library and Community Hub and Brooklands Radio elements in a way which would be much more inviting, appealing and engaging. This seems entirely in line with the aims of the Carnegie model, which is an inspiration for the redesign and extension into a community hub.

Improving access from Churchfields

The EBC Officer Report also suggests improving the design of the the access from Churchfields.
“The approach from the rear car park / pedestrian footpath is an important secondary access. Whilst some improvements have been made to the approach over the existing arrangement, it is considered that this is a missed opportunity to create a more welcoming space with better permeability/ connectivity through the site which would help encourage an increase in footfall and activity within the area. It is considered that this could be improved further by creating a more prominent accessibility entrance at the rear with an enhanced landscaped setting with a seating area through the relocation of car parking spaces to the main car park.”

This aligns with views of the Stakeholder Reference Group about the significance of this entrance, and the fact that this area of the Library exterior is the most tranquil and sheltered from A317 traffic nuisance.

Note that Elmbridge stated that its ‘No objection’ was ‘subject to consideration of the issues above’ listed in the Officer Report.

An opportunity for improvement

We hope that the Surrey plans for the refurbishment may yet be amended, to achieve a more effective and appealing Community Hub by exploiting the great potential of an extended and improved Library building.

At the very least the first floor Activity Hub design must be improved, something which can be done at modest cost if incorporated now while there is the opportunity. Preferably the entire redesign of the building will be revisited, to offer an integrated community hub which is closer to what the community wants. But it is entirely up to Surrey County Council to decide this.

What currently seems unclear is how to get effective feedback to Surrey County Council about the proposed plans, other than by contacting our councillor for Weybridge Division, Tim Oliver.

We are still seeking clarification on how residents can make publicly visible comments on this Surrey County Council planning application.

 

 

Weybridge Library Community Hub Redevelopment Plans

Surrey County Council’s consultation planning application (2023/2312) for Redeveloping Weybridge Library as a community hub is now on the Elmbridge Borough Council website.
This is a consultation, as the Library planning application will be decided by Surrey itself.
Update 1 Sept: the full set of 25 plans is now listed on the EBC website, up from the 2 originally listed.
Update 17 Sept: The Elmbridge BC decision on the consultation application is “No objection”.

Application Headlines

Address: Weybridge Library Church Street Weybridge Surrey KT13 8DE
Description : Consultation from Surrey County Council: Change of existing library, museum, public hall (Use Class F1) and Brooklands Radio (Class E) to new community hub to include library with single storey infill extension (Use Class F1), youth support (Use Class F2), flexible community/commercial including public hall (Use Class F1/E) plus external alterations to existing elevations, installation of photovoltaic panels and roof top plant and associated parking and landscaping.
Application Type : Surrey County Council Consultation
Status: Registered. Not decided by EBC. Please contact the relevant authority to make a comment.

Surrey County Council Cabinet on 27 June 2023 approved capital spending to fund the Weybridge Library Community Hub redevelopment.

There is some useful information in the comprehensive Report on WEYBRIDGE HUB REDEVELOPMENT presented to Surrey Council Cabinet on 27 June 2023.

Surrey also provide a summary of the options considered.
The original long list of options to deliver Weybridge Library Community Hub included a complete re-build of the existing building and alternative leasehold or freehold acquisitions to re-site the building.
These options were discounted due to the cost and carbon footprint to deliver a new build and limited alternative sites capable of delivering the spatial needs of Council Services.