You will have all heard by now about the success in the High Court by Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries and Friends of Somerset Libraries.
It has concerned us greatly that Council Leader Mark Hawthorne and the GCC administration, instead of showing a little contrition, and taking some time to absorb the judge’s ruling before turning their attention to formulating a better, more equitable, and LAWFUL strategy for the future of our public libraries, made some inaccurate statements to the local and national press. Inaccuracies that have been parroted by Chris White of the LGA on national BBC TV.
Cllr Hawthorne and Mr White state that GCC were "tripped up on a small technical point". This is absolutely not the case. The high court judge made it very clear that a message of warning needed to be sent to other authorities that they must take their public sector equalities duties seriously so it is very concerning that the message has not got through. The plans were ruled not only unlawful but a substantive breach of the law and "bad government" and so were entirely quashed.
We have written a letter to both Mr White and the BBC requesting a retraction. For clarity of the situation in Glos, which has been grossly underplayed, I attach the letter here.
http://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/lga-spokesperson-dismisses-high-court-ruling-as-a-technicality-on-national-television-retraction-requested-by-fogl/
Others who are involved in similar library restructures must be aware that the judge did not rule the plans unlawful on a minor technicality. The same mistakes must not be made again.
We have received an overwhelming response from the public regarding the high court victory. It is well worth a read if you need reminding how important libraries are to people
http://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/high-court-victory-the-reaction-wow/
This was our statement to the press with a message to Mr Vaizey. http://foclibrary.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/high-court-judge-rules-gccs-library-cuts-unlawful/
regards
Johanna
Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries
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