Ixworth and Wickham Market Library Responses, Stowmarket and Debenham protests

Acrostic of "Library" on the wall
at Debenham Library

Over the weekend we heard news of the responses in Ixworth and Wickham Market to the Suffolk library consultation and protests took place in both Stowmarket and Debenham as the pressure on Suffolk County Council continues to increase.

The Bury Free Press details a public meeting in Ixworth at which great lengths seem to have been taken to prevent the expression of what seems the most widely held view in Suffolk - that libraries should be kept open and the County Council should run them.Efforts included laying the room out with tables with "post-it" notes on to try and get "positive ideas".

County Cllr Joanna Spicer began the public meeting in what is sadly becoming the Suffolk CC manner, by telling people what they are allowed to think:

This isn’t an opportunity to object to possible closure or say ‘we support our library’. We want your ideas of how we can keep this library going.

But several people in Ixworth didn't seem to take kindly to being told what to think and asked questions about why the library could not stay how it is and then John Ellison offered to set up a "Save Ixworth Library" group. Good luck to them! 

Meanwhile following a public meeting in Wickham Market the Wickham Market Partnership (just the kind of organisation Suffolk were looking for) have submitted an expression of interest to the County Council. They will probably be pleased to read this until they get to the final paragraph:

Whilst the consultation document has itemised what community libraries are expected to provide, it has failed to recognise that organisations need clear and open information on the financial burden they are expected to take on. This document is not a consultation on what local people feel should happen, but a directive that should communities not take over their libraries, then the service will be discontinued. There is no indication in this document how local communities can reduce the indirect costs at County Council level because there is insufficient information on the breakdown of individual costs. (my emphasis)

Which is exactly what we have all been saying to Suffolk since they started this sham of a consultation.

As I reported at length in my Blog, there was a 28 hour read-in that took place in Debenham over the weekend and over a Stowmarket (a so-called County Library that was previously assumed to be "safe") protesters formed a human chain around the library. The EADT have a report on both protests.