Manchester City Council

Manchester City Council's top-level Executive approved proposals for a project lasting up to five years. At its heart are the goals of maintaining the historic complex for future generations while enabling the buildings to deliver state-of-the-art services.

The Town Hall Extension, Central Library and St Peter's Square will all benefit from the programme, scheduled to start this year and run until 2014. It is estimated the work will cost up to £165 million which will be partly offset by other savings.

One important aspect of the plans is the creation of a new Customer Service Centre on the ground floor of the Town Hall Extension. This would bring together a number of key services in a welcoming environment and enable visitors to resolve different enquiries in a single visit. For example a resident could pay their Council Tax, check out their housing benefit entitlement and borrow a book from a new family and community library.

The new family and community library, which it is proposed to call City Library, will also be created on the ground floor alongside the Town Hall Extension. This follows the success of similar community libraries elsewhere in the city, for example North City Library in Harpurhey, which combine library facilities with other council services.

The refurbishment will create more desk spaces in the Town Hall Extension as office space is used more effectively, enabling the Council to vacate office space elsewhere in the city.

The Grade II*-listed Central Library will be sympathetically restored to increase access to the City's library collection and offer more than the traditional range of library services provided in the current building.

The Archive Reading Room will bring together Greater Manchester County Records Office, Manchester Archives and Local Studies and other partners to provide improved public access to Manchester's rich archive heritage.

Other planned elements include a 'Mediatheque' facility from the British Film Institute and the collections of the North West Film Archive. This will be a series of state-of-the-art spaces, including a cinema and ICT suite, where residents will be able to browse and view a range of Manchester-related films and television programmes.

The Library Theatre, currently in the basement of the Central Library, has outgrown its present home and needs to relocate to update its facilities, increase its audience capacity and expand its educational work. An options appraisal, looking at potential new homes, is currently being carried out and its findings will be reported to the Executive in April.

It is also proposed to transform Library Walk (the curved walkway between St Peter's Square and Mount Street bordered by the Central Library and Town Hall extension) into a semi-enclosed 'galleria' with a glass roof.

In addition, an international design competition will be launched to remodel St Peter's Square. Library Walk would also be included in the proposed design competition which aspires to transform a space which currently does not provide an adequate setting for the town hall complex into a public space of international significance.

Part of the redevelopment of St Peter's Square will also see the creation of an appropriate, contemporary commemoration of the 1819 Peterloo massacre. An artist of international reputation will be appointed as part of the overall brief for the square.

Councillor Bernard Priest, Executive Member for Finance and Human Resources, said: "Manchester has arguably the finest civic complex of any British city outside London. This refurbishment programme is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to upgrade the services offered from these buildings and radically improve the experience of people using them. It will also enable us to enhance the public spaces in which these internationally significant buildings are set."

"Rather than piecemeal refurbishment, this comprehensive approach will enable us to deliver dramatic improvements for the benefit of Manchester residents. It will also create jobs during a period of economic recession."