'Other Bucks libraries could be under threat' - meeting told (From Bucks Free Press)

So more libraries are possibly under threat? The Council Tax continues to rise while the services we get in return dwindle.

How on earth can the £5m+ spent on the new library in Wycombe be justified when other small libraries are under threat. Do they expect the people in the smaller communities to stop reading?

Have you read Ivor’s blog today? Click on the “YOUR SAY” link at the top of the page then click on “BLOGS”.

Every public service is under threat when the Conservatives are running the finances.

Kathie Webber, Chairman of Stoke Poges Parish Council, has been keeping Stoke Poges villagers informed since this affair came to light.

In her feedback to us she has observed, inter alia:

“Mrs Dewar maintained I had been consulted, and as I was finally allowed to speak, I pointed out that I had been told on August 21 of the decision and the decision notice was published an hour or so later - without any of my comments being included.”

And:

“She, (Mrs. Dewar), also claimed our 229 letters were consultation - these of course were protests. English is quite precise. The committee spotted the consultation process had been ignored and is asking for it to be carried out in the proper manner before January 31.”

As a resident of Stoke Poges, I would observe that the current economic climate is certainly not good, but these things have to be weathered until the wind shifts again. Stoke Poges is a lively community with a notable history and heritage and it is suffering chronically, (nearly five years, now), from the lack of a proper village centre, including the already-agreed library as well as a shortage of affordable accommodation. When such projects are not properly followed through to completion the financial and social costs of putting things right later on are considerably higher than the original bill, because of the decay and dereliction that occurs in the interim. Failing to keep faith with the complete Bell’s Hill project carries the very real risk of wreaking irreversible damage to the general quality of life in the local area.

In the interim it would certainly seem reasonable for Bucks County to give the Stoke Poges residents adjacent to the Bell’s Hill development a significant reduction in their Council Tax bills. A fifty percent reduction would seem reasonable given the level of disruption to their lives and length of time it has been going on.

Hard times place us under a greater obligation to pull together for the long-term general good. Right now, Bucks County Council and Persimmon need more than ever to work together and with the Stoke Poges Parish Council in the longer-term interest of the community, which is their proper goal. If the prime focus of current Bucks County planning has become short-term, tactical interest and gain, rather than long-term social vision, then we have a serious problem.

The timing of this sudden, suggested change in size of the facility has all the appearance of being a ruse to scupper the whole thing through the introduction of a far-too-late-in-the-
day-to-challenge, unilateral and un-consulted change to the previously agreed and signed-off terms of a development that is now already well into the building/implementat
ion phase. It should, if possible, simply be rejected on those grounds – it is a breach of trust if not an actual breach of contract. Bucks County Council have no more right to make binding agreements and then to break them afterwards than does anyone else. It seems a questionable attempt to get away with moving the goalposts at the very least.

Given that Persimmon are on-site and have said that the Library will be built, I regret to say that invoking the default clause on the contract seems to me to be a cynical move that generates a nice short-term gain of £250K of extra cash for Bucks County Council whilst making everyone else the losers.

Del-Boy Trotter and Arthur Daley deal in “nice little earners” and in bending the truth.

A County Council should have somewhat higher aims and standards.

I spoke with the carer of a lovely 90 year old disabled lady. The lady used to visit the Stoke Poges library to change her books but particularly for the conversation and company. the mobile library has neither the companionship nor the easy disabled access. She really does look forward to the new library and the rekindling of old aquaintencies. She and the other dear old people will be so badly served if the county reneges on its declared intent to rebuild.