Kettering Library roof repairs

Northants Telegraph

Cllr Helen Howell from North Northants Council explains the roof repairs that are estimated to cost £6.8m

Transcript

00:00 today at the Kettering Library which encompasses Cornerstone as the main

00:05 building with the Alfred East Gallery and the museum and as you can see behind

00:09 me all of our wonderful books and everything and it is the library that

00:13 we're having these issues with the main library it's the roof and we've had

00:18 considerable water ingress we've had some of the roof come down and obviously

00:25 we have had to shut the library for health and safety reasons the risk we

00:30 have here is of falling debris from the roof I mean the external roof is in

00:36 need of full repair now there's been a lot of patchwork done over the years but

00:43 with the increased issues with our severe weather that we're having over

00:49 the last couple of years the deterioration on the roof has just got

00:54 to a point now where we are being told by the specialists that we need a full

00:59 roof replacement we've been working ever since the new build part has finished

01:08 and contractors left the site at that point we realized that the old roof on

01:15 the library was having some water ingress into the new part and also the

01:21 current internals of the library so we have been unable to open any of the the

01:29 new bit as well as having to shut the library which is really disappointing

01:33 you know we've had a we've got a fantastic project that we've completed

01:37 it's looking amazing and we can't use it we're at a point now where we we've got

01:42 a design for a process which which means that we have to look at the possibility

01:49 of putting a canopy tent over the whole of the library so that we are able to

01:55 get onto the roof to be able to strip the roof back and look at replacement of

02:03 that roof it's a very very complex design we it's taken a long time to get

02:09 the design for the canopy we are there now we also have to go through the

02:14 process of approvals to the council procedure so that's approval at the

02:18 executive approval at full council then we have to go to full procurement and

02:22 then we also have to come a point a contractor order the slate and it's a

02:28 very costly slate but it's also a very rare slate because it's poly western

02:35 slate and that has to be mined we are hoping to save some of the slates that's

02:41 on the roof to cut down on some of the cost but until we can go through the

02:46 full process we won't know to what extent it is estimated at around six

02:52 point eight zero seven million pounds to complete the project and the project

02:59 includes the tenting or canopy the scaffolding the refitting of the roof

03:05 then a mind we're looking at poly western stone which needs to be mortared

03:10 and bedded in with proper mortar it's not like tacking slates on this is where

03:15 it's literally building a wall on top of this this building here so that that

03:21 includes everything we have built into a contingency because obviously once we

03:26 start stripping back the roof there may well be some other works that we

03:31 encounter so so we have looked at the worst-case scenario here and you know

03:38 let's get on with it now and let's let's get this done and we will make this a

03:43 success we have we are custodians of this building and we have to get it

03:47 right so we cannot rush this we cannot just just put a tent and get the roof

03:53 done as soon as possible we've we've gone out to all of the specialists we've

03:57 got to make this right for future generations I can assure you it is our

04:03 full intention to bring this building back into full operation and to be

04:09 something that Kettering and North North Hampshire are truly proud of

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