The Library Walk Protest Goes On

Library Walk - talk script 

As a tour guide since 1996 in Manchester I get to see the city through the eyes of local, national and international visitors.

Almost in every respect the city centre is a far far better place to walk around than it was in the nineties pre and post IRA bomb. 

We have rich heritage of old and new and people love that diversity. 

The way Manchester  City Council has steered the changes has been universally acclaimed. It should be congratulated for this, especially in the partnerships it has fostered with the private sector. Less good has been the Council's record with many of its own key building stock and public spaces. 

From Heaton Hall and Queen's Park in the north to Wythenshawe, Baguley and Hough End Halls in the south it has been guilty of a dereliction of duty, sometimes shockingly so. In the centre the situation has improved in Castlefield yet much still needs to be done. 

We are here because the Council wants to gate and glass Library Walk and raise huge ramps of pavement to obscure views of one its most prominent urban acts of generosity - the Central Library and Town Hall Extension Complex of the 1930s. 

This is a small thing you could say, a matter of a few metres, a minor change so what's the fuss?

Well, small things become big issues if they are mis-managed and unnecessary and spoil something lovely.

They also become big issues when they are wrong

The late and untrumpeted gating and glassing of Library Walk is wrong - normally at Confidential we get a proud press release about these things, but not this time, very sneaky.

Library Walks gating and glassing is wrong because it is aesthetically wrong. One of the places locals and visitors like best is Library Walk and its handsome, dignified and elegant curve. Aesthetically it’s been appreciated by so many for so many years, so why destroy its special status.

It is wrong because it is not needed, the new underground link between the Library and the Extension is generous in the new plans - I've been down there and seen it.

More to the point why spend so much money just so people don't get a bit cold walking between the two buildings on ground level? 

It is wrong because the gating and glassing has been justified by distortions of fact.

The official and partisan but apparently 'impartial' report stated that Library Walk is unlit and dangerous.

Unlit? Then light it properly. Problem solved.

Dangerous?

Yes a horrible attack took place there not so long ago. But horrible attacks have taken place in many other alleyways and also on main streets of the city.

Maybe we should gate and fence Back Piccadilly, Back Pool Fold, even Oxford Road, but that would be nonsense wouldn’t it? 

Then there's the cost.

Around £3.5m apparently. £3.5m so that people don't get a bit wet and cold between buildings a few metres apart? Here's an idea spend that money on fixing the fountains around the city centre. Or maybe spend the money on a public area in one of the more deprived suburbs of the city.

One senior councillor has accused me of being 'middle class' for caring about Library Walk.

Interesting the use of 'middle class' as an insult. But worse still the implication that I suppose he meant the working class don't bother about the preservation of the valuable buildings and spaces in their city. How insulting.

Maybe he was implying that the Council is an old-style Soviet that needs to make decisions about what is best for us as we clearly aren't capable of such decisions ourselves. Maybe the implication is that once elected we have literally no say except the one from a ballot box at election time.

But that is no say at all if the same administration is returned every time. 

Given the 13,000 plus unique reads we have had on Confidential about Library Walk and the given the commitment shown by the people here it seems that a good number of citizens have decided that they are capable of thinking for themselves and they think that Library Walk is worth preserving.

By reversing the plans for Library Walk the Council could show how it does respond to the public especially when it get things wrong. It could show how it really understands the city and wants to improve its public amenity. It could show it’s not a Soviet but a modern democratic institution. It could show it knows how to recognise an error when it’s made one. 

Light Library Walk, clean it and pave it properly, but don't glass it in.

Don't gate it. 

It's a jewel.

A small thing perhaps.

But that's no reason to throw it away. This is an opportunity to show Manchester that its Council listens.