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April 21, 2009
Swindon Residents make a complaint to the Ombudsman
The "Save Old Town Library campaign" in Swindon have now lodged a formal and extensive complaint to the Government Ombudsman about the conduct and process of Swindon Borough Council in their decision to close library services in the Budget for 2009-10 .. The complaint was placed on their behalf by their local MP, Anne Snelgrove today.
In the Wirral a complaint to the Ombudsman was made by residents prior to the decision by the Minister to intervene. The Ombudsman in that case made clear that he would require the councillors responsible to justify their actions by showing that plans had been properly been drawn up and approved prior to the decision being made. We await the outcome of those inquiries.
In the case of Swindon it is indeed the processes of the council that have been at question all the time and it is proper that they should be examined.
Posted by Perkins at April 21, 2009 7:15 PM
Comments
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Lois at April 22, 2009 10:49 AM
This isn't actually much to do with Swindon, although any complaint to the Ombudsman about a council re libraries has my backing, but just to throw in confirmation that Caroline Moss-Gibbons of CILIP has contacted me, and I'm pleased to say we got on well.
Points I made included a desire to see the useless process of revalidation dumped, the MLA closed (it is no joke to say that I still don't know what it does), pretentious jargon like Web 2.0 thrown out and my wish for CILIP to start unequivocally saying they like books and being a bit bolshie about it.
So for now, I'll shelve my little idea of marching on London and putting Ridgmount Street to fire and sword in favour of CILIP, myself and Tim Coates marching on the DCMS and putting them to fire and sword instead. Think of it as radical downsizing.
I'm obviously being far from entirely serious, but I think some kind of peaceful protest is warranted, I would like to see CILIP being a bit more noticeable and vocal, and it would be fun.
Posted by: James Christie at April 22, 2009 3:20 PM