Wednesday 4 May 2011

Library Consultation Whitewash

To misquote, there are lies, damn lies and Brent Council PR. The May edition of the Brent Magazine contains an article on Brent libraries. In contrast to its coverage of the 'Transformation' consultation it does state clearly that six libraries will be closed but it is the final paragraphs on consultation that will get library campaigners seething:
The consultation ended on 4 March and since then the council has been carefully analysing the results and has taken on board many of the suggestions and views of both library users and non-users.
As well as inviting comments, the council also made it clear that it would be open to any suggestions from groups interested in taking over the control from the council of any libraries threatened with closure.
The council did not of course take on board the views of 82% of consultees that the libraries should stay open and did not publish its criteria for community take over until after bids were submitted. Cllr Powney eventually made it clear that any takeover require the community campaigns to purchase the buildings from Brent, rather more that is implied by 'taking over the control'.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I saw that at the weekend and it made my Blood boil - What a load of rubbish in a magazine that is a useless waste of time and now even more propaganda machine for Brent Council than ever.
There was nothing much of interest in it at all and I only read it to see if they would mention the Libraries.
What ever they say It must cost money that could go into Saving our Libraries - Its on line and people who don't have a computer could go to the library to read it if they really wanted to.
Common sense? Not Brent!