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Brief Summary : Response of Councillors to Open Forum Statement

Among his comments, Councillor Bluh said that : he did not respond 'curtly' to Councillor Pajak;  allowances will be indexed linked, but councillors had not taken advantage of other rises offered to them. The amount of savings Council must make is equal to a figure represented by 10% of the overall Budget, in excess of £10 million;  the Council must balance the budget in a time of economic crisis;   this is extremely difficult and savings are being sought which will, it is hoped, affect the fewest people the least.

Among her comments, Councillor Foley said that : there was a meeting with the Unions on 15th January when they confirmed that they are against volunteers replacing staff; volunteers would not replace librarians; books would be shelved A-Z by author and an electronic system would allow people to check books out; volunteers would open up and close the facility and monitor people as they got their books; in this way the library could stay open and its hours could even be extended;  when she had realised the financial problems ahead, she had done her utmost to think of a solution to permit the library to stay open; charity shops are an excellent example; she had to think 'out of the box.  Much has been achieved at Lawn Community Centre, wholly run by volunteers;  the people of Old Town might do a similar thing.   With regard to the 'Dorset model' Councillor Foley said that she has been misquoted;  she has never mentioned the 'Dorset model' and the 'Dorset model' was not mentioned at the Area Panel Meeting on 11 December.

Among his comments, Councillor Brian Mattock said :  a decision on the library's future has not been made yet; the current proposals might change, but he is not encouraging us by saying this to think that the library will be retained;  consultations on the issue continue.

                                We hope there are no errors of fact in the above, which is taken from memory and not from written notes.

Statement to Open Forum, 21 January :  Page 2

Three :  With regard to consultations with community groups. Councillor Bluh wrote, I quote : "At the Old Town and Lawn Area Panel Meeting on 11 December ward councillors raised these issues with the local community, which included some representatives of residents' associations."

It was reported to me that there was a vigorous response from the Deputy Leader, present at that meeting, to criticism from those present about the proposals she was advocating for Old Town Library. Only two members of the public at that meeting chose to distance themselves from this criticsm (one being from the Pipers area and another one from the Westlecott area), neither of whom are Old Town Library users and neither was speaking on behalf of their Residents' Association.

At this Panel Meeting the only model of volunteering invoked by the Deputy Leader in defence of her proposals was the Dorset model.  Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and East Sussex were not mentioned, nor was detail of any volunteering model given.  I suggest that those consulted were ill-served by the vagueness of councillors' inquiries and could only have acquired more information had they visited the Campaign's website.

Finally, the verbal answer to my Supplementary Question was that no use is planned for the council building in which the library is housed.

If nothing is planned for the building, we maintain that it is rash and foolish to leave it empty.  If it is known that there will be a use planned in the fullness of time and that the building being boarded up and vacant will help this, we suggest that the current 'consultations' about the library's future are at best misleading and at worst a sham.

Distinguished Members : the people of Old Town, tradesmen, businessmen and residents, expect their local community to be protected by their elected representatives against an Executive which, for whatever reason, cannot accept that residents' Council Tax resources should be shared equitably amongst those who provide them.  They also expect their representatives to enter into dialogue with all Old Town stakeholders, many of whom have been totally ignored.

The library is a key amenity for this community, creating a footfall for trade in Old Town and providing a much needed professional service to its users. I and its many and diverse supporters urge you to investigate how to make your economies elsewhere.