Community unites over libraries closure fears

0 - 0 • Published 1 Feb 2009 08:30

A DECISION on the future of village libraries proposed for closure in a cost-cutting move will be known next month.

The proposal is part of budget cuts drawn up by council officials, and would mean the axing of libraries in Cardross, Cove, Rosneath and Garelochhead - a move which has provoked strong objections from communities and opposition from some Helensburgh and Lomond councillors.

The council"s executive last week received the overall budget proposals to come before members on Thursday February 12.

Lomond North Councillor George Freeman said members continue to receive representations from the public on proposals.

He said: 'The libraries are mostly in the Lomond ward covered by myself and Councillor Danny Kelly and we do not support these proposed closures. I am in discussions with my Helensburgh colleagues and the council leader.'

The suggestion that Cardross Library might be closed was met with dismay by the village"s community council last week.

Chairman Tony Davey told their meeting that Argyll and Bute Council has been told they must not increase council tax or they will lose out on part of their cash allocation from the Scottish Government but to achieve this they must find a way to fill the £1.4m deficit it will create.

Mr Davey pointed out that there are five libraries threatened, four of them in Helensburgh and Lomond, and said that to put something like that into the budget was 'unacceptable'.

Community council member Andrea Steele read out a statement from villager May Cormack, who said: 'This is the busiest library in the whole area and the council sanctioned a refurbishment programme to commence this year and obviously considered it worthy of this expenditure.

'It seems such a backward step in 2009 to close a library when we should be encouraging literacy.'

And Mrs Steele said that as a teacher herself she felt that it would be a terrible thing to lose the village library when there has been so much publicity in recent years about young people who can"t read or write properly and when the library is so popular with local youngsters.

She said that any proposal to close the library would end with a 'village versus the council' situation.

Mr Davey remarked that the response of the library users to the retiral of a librarian was a clear indication of how much the community cares about the library and he said that the proposal would 'hit at the heart of the village.'

The meeting heard that a petition has been started by the village cafe owner and was receiving a lot of support.

Argyll and Bute Councillor Andrew Nisbet told the audience that the proposal had come as a surprise to the councillors as well and said that what the community was doing was 'exactly' the right thing and would lend power to the councillors" elbows when fighting the proposal.

He said the budget process had only just begun and would be very difficult.

Councillor Nisbet pointed out that Helensburgh and Lomond and one other area were the only places in Argyll and Bute that still had rural community libraries and that all other areas were served by a mobile library service.

The mobile library also visits places which already have branch libraries to cater for the housebound and infirm.

He suggested that people write to the Council leader Dick Walsh at Kilmory to protest and to copy their letters to their own local councillors.

One member of the audience said: 'The powers that be always say, education, education, education. Libraries are very important in terms of the education of children and if they really want to encourage children to read then this is the last thing they need to do.'

They agreed that a letter should go to the council protesting about the closure threat to libraries.

Tweet

This article appeared in Helensburgh Advertiser 29 Jan 09

Follow @helensburghadv

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.