You are right. The new plan is to use York Gardens as a test bed for the "Big Society", whatever that means. It seemed, at the Scrutiny Committee meeting last Monday, even the councillors were unclear about what it meant for York Gardens. Some groups which had contacted the Council were not informed of the 4th option and some only found out just before the meeting. There has been and will not be any consultation about the "Big Society" option which means using volunteers, rather than a full staffing, to run a very limited library service. One person who argued for the 4th option, rather than closure, has since regretted because the implications were not recognised at the time. There is still a lack of clarity about how it will work.The cost of keeping the library fully open would mean an increase in Council Tax of approximately £1 per annum per head of population of working age. Is that really too much to afford when such a high proportion of young people using the library use it for school work, unemployed use it for looking for jobs or getting IT training and the whole point is that it provides a community facility?If people really think so, then let them not complain about young people being disaffected and hanging around.If the Council really wish to experiment with the "Big Society" this is not the library to use as a test bed. It is like drug companies testing drugs on people who are too poor to afford to buy fully tested drugs.
Jane Eades ● 5184d