report by mathew reeve unite community member i think The Labour Party and council in Sheffield should be ashamed of the appalling public ward meeting held in #Burngreave yesterday evening. It focused mainly on the councils plan to close libraries in the city, or hand them (and our personal data) to volunteers/local groups or private companies (yes!) such as Carillion plc. The contempt shown for local residents by the three Labour councillors plus Darnalls Mazher Iqbal makes one wonder why they were ever elected. Apparently if residents dont want Burngreave library or other libraries in the city to close, the status quo (keeping them all open) is *not* an option. Eh? I thought it was a consultation? Oh, and if you want to keep Burngreave library open you need to come up with a business plan for running it with volunteers *before* the consultation (which covers the Christmas period) ends... Bonkers! According to the council consultation leaflet, budget restraints are not the only reason for closing libraries; The first is that there is a demand for new technology and a decline in book borrowing (apparently), and the other is that fewer people are using community libraries and mobile libraries. In other words, the council has blurred the reasons behind the plans when in fact last night the councillors made it abundantly clear that the cuts were the only reason for closures. Another thing we were told which the audience found very worrying is that locals should pick up litter on the streets! The council shouldnt be responsible apparently. To make matters worse, we learnt that Amey (which made £27.2 million profit in 2012 and has a £1.7 billion contract with Sheffield City Council) only cleans each street in Sheffield (wait for this)...once every 13 weeks... The sooner the theres no choice other than austerity councillors are kicked out of Sheffield CC the better.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 12:16:58 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015