Members may, or may not know that Sutton Coldfield Town Council now issue a quarterly newsletter. The latest one, for Autumn 2020, includes interesting information on a possible future for the library, as part of a wide reaching scheme to transform the town centre.
A plan, which has been put forward for the ‘Extended Red Rose Centre Site’, is described as follows:-
The Red Rose Centre, and its associated Victoria Road Car Park, both owned by the City Council, occupies a large and significant site within the town centre. For the purposes of this masterplan, however, the development opportunity considers the full block up to Victoria Road to encourage an ambitious comprehensive redevelopment which could be transformative for Sutton Coldfield.
The overall aim for this site will be to create a distinctive, vibrant daytime and evening destination alongside contemporary new homes and workspace that will attract people to visit, live and work within the town centre. It should include a new contemporary purpose-built library facility which reinstates the successful Sutton Coldfield Library in its established location within the town centre. As a key community asset, it could provide library services alongside complementary community functions, such as an accessible archive and heritage centre, drop-in council and health services, flexible spaces for hire, and other facilities that can support the needs of the local community.
Members should not get too excited at this stage, as it is a long term project, which has to obtain the combined agreement of many other organisations involved, if it is to proceed successfully.
This scheme is marked ‘G’ on the overall design for the town centre, which is set out below:-