Final cost of library project tops £28 million

Richard Youle, Local Democracy Reporter

The final cost of converting two former shops into a library, archives store and services hub exceeded £28 million, figures have shown.

The budget for Swansea council’s Y Storfa project kept climbing and it’s been funded through grants, a loan and council borrowing.

Opposition leader Cllr Chris Holley described Y Storfa’s £28.2 million price tag, which includes design fees and the purchase of the former BHS and Miss Selfridge stores on the corner of Oxford Street and Princess Way, as “quite astonishing” but he said it was nice to see it open.

He was asking questions at a cabinet meeting where Labour leaders approved sources of recent funding for the project. The total funding made available has come to £29 million and cabinet members were keen to say this meant the scheme had come in under budget.

Cllr David Hopkins, cabinet member for investment and delivery, said Y Storfa was a fantastic example of regeneration in the city.

Council leader Rob Stewart said the multi-purpose building with its various services on hand as well as the library and archives had been a success since opening last December. “It has clearly been the right thing to do,” he said.

The council initially acquired the old BHS store in 2021 for the new hub and then expanded the project by buying the adjacent Miss Selfridge building a year later. The plan was to move the central library and archives store from their Civic Centre home to what was a more central location in the city.

In 2022 councillors on a scrutiny committee heard the budget had increased and was likely to exceed £15 million. A senior officer told the committee: “It will be a fantastic scheme but it won’t be a flamboyant, expensive scheme.”

In 2023, following an exempt cabinet report about Y Storfa, the council didn’t comment on a claim that it could end up costing just over £25 million in total.

The new report to cabinet on July 16 said a number of factors had contributed to the increased costs. “Whilst surveys were undertaken at the earliest possible stage to inform design development, with appropriate allowances made for areas that could not be accessed, the progression of works on site identified a range of unforeseen issues,” it said.

“These included, but were not limited to, missing foundations, additional asbestos, and structural deficiencies. As a result, the overall scale and scope of works increased significantly.”

As the work continued in 2024, it said, structural issues were encountered including missing foundations, deteriorated lintels and the need for additional support to the roof and façade elements.

Measures were taken to ensure costs were minimised in a process called value engineering and the resulting building is modern, energy efficient and has 7,400 square metres of space. External grants of just £11 million have helped pay for the scheme.

Footfall

The report said Y Storfa’s daily footfall is around 1,420 and that more people are using the library and archives service than previously.

Cllr Stewart: “Having a facility like this in the core city centre not only is great for the public but it also helps the businesses around it in terms of that subsequent footfall.”

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Elliott King, cabinet member for culture, human rights and equalities, said: “We wanted to create something welcoming, useful and accessible for everyone, and it’s wonderful to see so many people making it part of their everyday lives.”

The seafront Civic Centre meanwhile is to become a retail, leisure and residential complex.

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