Shropshire Council to move Church Stretton Library away from town centre
Shropshire Council has today made the decision to move Church Stretton library from its current location in the town centre to Church Stretton Secondary School on Shrewsbury Road.
For four months the Church Stretton Library Support Group has argued the case for keeping the library where it is. This work involved very careful scrutiny of the Council’s case for relocation and at every turn has identified how the relocation will damage community life in Church Stretton and make life for older people and those with mobility difficulties very difficult indeed.
Campaigners talked to local residents and library users and the views of Church Stretton residents and voters has overwhelmingly been supportive of keeping the library where it is. Over 1100 people signed a petition to keep the bibrary at its current location and 203 people turned out for a public meeting in response to the Council’s consultation itself.
81.85% of those replying to the consultation wanted to keep the library where it is and opposed the relocation to the school.
Campaigners say the failure of the Council to accept this huge expression of democratic opinion is a staggering betrayal of over 100 years of representative democracy. The group also said Shropshire Council did not care about local people and their views and has pressed on with its own “commissioning agenda” which means getting rid of public services and handing them over to anyone who will take them even if it is an unaccountable private business.
Commenting on the decision to relocate the library, Felicity Thomas, spokesperson for the library support group said:
“The last four months of discussion around the future of our library have revealed that our Council is fundamentally not fit for purpose and needs to be put in special measures.
"It’s staggering incompetence in answering questions, its arrogant dismissal of massive public opinion, its failure to take account of the results of its own consultation and its inability to work with us to develop new ways of running a public library all point to a breakdown of local representative democracy.
"It is clear that our councillors do not care one jot for local people and are determined to press on in a top-down, autocratic, arrogant manner. Residents and voters will not forget this betrayal.
“We do not accept this decision. The fight to keep our library where it is will continue and there are avenues we can pursue to fight the decision and even at this late stage we ask the Council to reconsider and work with us to produce a solution based on an equal partnership between the Council and local residents.”
