A resident was left baffled at the news that the library in Wokingham closed early during the hottest days of the recent heatwaves.
Wokingham library at the Carnival Hub opened in the summer of 2022 as the town’s go-to place for books, IT and other library services.
Although it is a modern building, the library closed early for five days during the heatwaves earlier this month.
Peter Humphreys was baffled at the news, questioning why the library was unable to stay open during last week’s full council meeting of Wokingham borough council.
He said: “Global warming has long been a well-known phenomenon, and the media keeps reminding us that all the highest temperature records have been set this century.
“The council even declared a climate emergency and created an executive post with this portfolio.
“The council’s spin section has been bombarding us with posts about the sustainability of the town centre regeneration, even though there are glaring omissions such as a lack of solar panels on the roofs of the car parks and many mature trees were culled.
“Taking all the above into account, it is truly baffling as to why the new library at Carnival Pool had to close during the recent warm weather.
“More so as with many schools also closing and the publicity about how much education children lost due to COVID, this would seem to be the time when kids would want to make use of an air-conditioned library rather than go home to a property no cooler than their schools.
“The idea of keeping buildings cool is not new, they’ve been using wind catchers in Iran where the technology goes back to the 14th century.
“Can you please explain why the library is not fit for purpose?”
His question was answered by Rachel Bishop-Firth (Liberal Democrats, Emmbrook), the executive councillor for residents’ services.
She said: “The short answer is that this year we’ve had a number of days of record-breaking temperatures in Wokingham, exceeding 34 degrees at times.
“The extremely high temperatures during the recent heat wave caused problems with infrastructure right across the country.
“The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers design standards typically used for buildings of this type around the country mean that buildings are constructed to deal with normal summer maximum heat.
“In the Thames Valley, the standards give a typical normal outside maximum summer heat of 28 to 30° C. In the case of Wokingham Library, advanced building materials and a cooling system which uses automatic opening vents are designed to deliver an internal summer temperature of around 22 to 24 degrees on the hottest normal summer days.
“Record-breaking heatwave temperatures, which we’ve had on a number of days this year, are obviously a different scenario.
“The libraries team are working with the council’s design experts to assess whether the building’s cooling mechanisms are performing as intended and whether any further mitigation measures are needed in light of rising summer temperatures in the UK.”
In a follow-up, Mr Humphreys said: “I’m still baffled because we did know global warming was coming, and one would have thought the bar would have been set much higher to cope with that.
“Why didn’t they design it properly in the first place?”
Councillor Bishop-Firth replied that the Liberal Democrats were not in power at the time the library plan was approved in October 2020.
She said: “I don’t know the details of why this design was approved, but the building was designed to meet national building standards with reference to the expected maximum summer temperatures in the south of England, and I think with climate change now driving much higher summer temperatures, this administration has stepped up preparations for meeting the effects of a climate crisis.”
