News RSS Feed


Judge rules County Council library closures 'unlawful'

SOMERSET County Council's decision to close 11 libraries across Somerset is unlawful and can be challenged, a High Court judge has ruled.

The judge ruled that the council acted unlawfully by not considering the impact the closures would have on disabled people.

The decision does not mean that the libraries will not be closed, however, and the judge is currently being asked to consider overturning the decision to close them by campaigners.

Campaigners fighting to save them argued that the closures would leave the the councils without a "comprehensive and efficient" library service,m which is required under the 1964 Museums Act.

Ten libraries in Gloucestershire are also set to close.

It's unclear exactly what this means for Somerset's libraries at this stage but stay with us for more information as it develops.

Comments(22)

Guy Smiley says...
1:14pm Wed 16 Nov 11

Hands up - who actually uses a library these days?

Postman-Pat says...
1:36pm Wed 16 Nov 11

I do.......wikipedia!

Mike Rigby says...
2:32pm Wed 16 Nov 11

Great news. My kids use the library almost every week and our local library, threatened with closure, is much used by elderly people who would find it more difficult to get to another library.
www.mikerigby.org

BaldCarl2 says...
5:53pm Wed 16 Nov 11

Not used the libraries for years.
Get rid of 'em I say and return the money back to council tax payers in the form of a reduction in the amount they confiscate from us all.

BaldCarl2 says...
5:54pm Wed 16 Nov 11

Not used the libraries for years.
Get rid of 'em I say and return the money back to council tax payers in the form of a reduction in the amount they confiscate from us all.

grisleyreg says...
8:27pm Wed 16 Nov 11

I feel sure money spent on Libraries can be put to much better use such as the elderly , vulnerable people, roads and many things more important than books,
Libraries are of the past,
Money wasted I Say

19th hole says...
9:02pm Wed 16 Nov 11

how many more of the cut backs are legal it seems that if you now question the logic by posing with good sound evidence you stand a good chance of over turning the so called rules

creecher says...
6:54am Thu 17 Nov 11

Guy Smiley wrote:
Hands up - who actually uses a library these days?
Quite a lot of people do. Very easy getting rid of libraries which are used by the public when SCC could start looking at getting rid of consultation companies and some of the grossly overpaid heads of departments that do very little with regards to increased productivity and in some case their interfering has caused a great deal of extra costs(SW1 deal for example).
The saying get your own house in order comes to mind.

creecher says...
6:55am Thu 17 Nov 11

Guy Smiley wrote:
Hands up - who actually uses a library these days?
Quite a lot of people do. Very easy getting rid of libraries which are used by the public when SCC could start looking at getting rid of consultation companies and some of the grossly overpaid heads of departments that do very little with regards to increased productivity and in some case their interfering has caused a great deal of extra costs(SW1 deal for example).
The saying get your own house in order comes to mind.

grisleyreg says...
10:10am Thu 17 Nov 11

Perhaps these libraries should be passed on to the Parish councils that way each area could decide at a local level if the service is required or not,
Then the majority of taxpayers would not foot the bill for a minority

Mike Rigby says...
10:15am Thu 17 Nov 11

Parish Councils do not have the money to run extra services. Our local Parish Council has an annual budget of £25k a year. Although our library costs only £15k a year, there is not the spare cash to add it to the budget.

grisleyreg says...
1:25pm Thu 17 Nov 11

In these hard times we all have to take a hit why should Libraries be exempt?

somered says...
6:19pm Thu 17 Nov 11

Guy Smiley wrote:
Hands up - who actually uses a library these days?
Well according to this report about 1 in 5 of the population of the west http://www.libraries
west.org.uk/LWAR2010
.pdf

So quite a well used resource actually.

somered says...
6:22pm Thu 17 Nov 11

BaldCarl2 wrote:
Not used the libraries for years. Get rid of 'em I say and return the money back to council tax payers in the form of a reduction in the amount they confiscate from us all.
What an inept post, so you don't use them so get rid of them, well I haven't used school for 37 years so lets get rid of them are you saying that as well?

somered says...
6:28pm Thu 17 Nov 11

grisleyreg wrote:
In these hard times we all have to take a hit why should Libraries be exempt?
Bankers and top executives are; so why not libraries, the NHS, state schools etc..you know the facilities this government don't use or need to use but then tell you that we are all in it together?

Postman-Pat says...
7:36pm Thu 17 Nov 11

somered wrote:
grisleyreg wrote:
In these hard times we all have to take a hit why should Libraries be exempt?
Bankers and top executives are; so why not libraries, the NHS, state schools etc..you know the facilities this government don't use or need to use but then tell you that we are all in it together?
lets cut everything mentioned and benefits, free disabled passes, college handouts such as ema, politicians expenses and a host of other things! its the only way this country will sort itself

BaldCarl2 says...
12:24am Fri 18 Nov 11

I see all the socialists are coming out of the woodwork now.

It was your ilk that got us into this state - reliant on debt and a nation of malingering benefit claimants

LM says...
6:58pm Fri 18 Nov 11

I last went to the library about 3 months ago with my 8 year old son.
He loves fact books and chose 3 to bring home.
When we read them we found that each book was over 10 years old. This obviously ment that loads of the fact were out of date.
I really wanted my son to benefit from and enjoy the library but it seems the only lesson he learnt was that the library was old fashioned and disappointing.

tea_cake says...
7:32pm Mon 21 Nov 11

Oh yes, by all means, money is tight so let's close every service in the community. Why don't we go ahead and shut the museum, as well as the public parks. Then we can spend our days watching telly and going shopping with our hard-earned money every day until we die.

While we're at it, why not make every road a toll road? I'm tired of paying for them out of my taxes. And how much are those lights that line the main streets costing me? Why must I pay a tax for Christmas cheer that everyone, including unemployed freeloaders, can enjoy?

But seriously the library has to go...who has time for reading and learning anyway when there are socialist articles to comment on and an honest, decent living must be earned?

tea_cake says...
7:33pm Mon 21 Nov 11

Oh yes, by all means, money is tight so let's close every service in the community. Why don't we go ahead and shut the museum, as well as the public parks. Then we can spend our days watching telly and going shopping with our hard-earned money every day until we die.

While we're at it, why not make every road a toll road? I'm tired of paying for them out of my taxes. And how much are those lights that line the main streets costing me? Why must I pay a tax for Christmas cheer that everyone, including unemployed freeloaders, can enjoy?

But seriously the library has to go...who has time for reading and learning anyway when there are socialist articles to comment on and an honest, decent living must be earned?

tea_cake says...
7:34pm Mon 21 Nov 11

Oh yes, by all means, money is tight so let's close every service in the community. Why don't we go ahead and shut the museum, as well as the public parks. Then we can spend our days watching telly and going shopping with our hard-earned money every day until we die.

While we're at it, why not make every road a toll road? I'm tired of paying for them out of my taxes. And how much are those lights that line the main streets costing me? Why must I pay a tax for Christmas cheer that everyone, including unemployed freeloaders, can enjoy?

Mark1970 says...
1:30pm Tue 22 Nov 11

Ok I am bored so lets spice things up a bit.

Although I have not used a library since school, but some older generation do use libraries. It is not just about the old age pensioners that use this, or the scores of unemployed that use the computers to find work.

It is about history, about your child hood memories, and the taxes that we pay to keep these places open and running.

The money has run out simply because of our Governments desire to follow oil which has led us into wars that if we did not need oil would not have been a problem.

We have had millions spent on arms, which could have been spent on libraries to help educate children or given a place for old age pensioners.

The library should raise it's prices if it feels the need to, but a library is part and parcel of any town or city.

click2find

Most popular