School Clubs and Libraries

The Brecon & Radnor Express made interesting reading this week.

On the front page was the headline "Council says it was 'never plan to axe school clubs'", in which the County Council claim that their original email to head teachers was mis-interpreted, and of course they never wanted to close the breakfast clubs in primary schools.
On page two was a big article about the consultation meeting at the Library, where the portfolio holder for libraries, Councillor Rachel Powell, got quite a rough ride from the people who turned up - Gareth Ratcliffe was there, and he said on his Facebook page that about 70 people came over the course of the morning.
One of the issues brought up at that meeting was the building of the new library and museum in Brecon, which has taken longer than expected, and is costing rather a lot of money. The Councillor said that she was not able to talk about property issues - but, that being the case, it would have been a good idea for her to have brought along someone who could talk about property issues, especially in Hay where the sale of the old library building is so contentious. I bet that similar concerns were raised in Talgarth, where the next consultation meeting was due to be held.
I also noticed that the Councillor was challenged about all the consultation meetings taking place during the daytime. If there had been an evening meeting, I would certainly have gone along to it - but at 10am on a Monday morning, I was at work. The Councillor said that she couldn't commit to evening meetings because she had a "busy portfolio" and a young family.
Nobody was suggesting that she should go to evening meetings every week - but these are special circumstances, and surely she could get someone else to look after her young family for a few evenings, because this is her job. This is her portfolio.
She also said that she was coming during the day because that reflected the usual footfall of the library as the library was normally open at that time - but the library used to be open for longer, and in the evenings, and a lot of people who work during the day would have liked to have their voices heard as well. As the lady in the audience said (as reported in the B&R) there is the wider community as well.

Last night I was at Stitch and Bitch at the Swan, and one of the ladies there had been at the Library meeting. She said there was some talk of trying to make money out of hiring the Library space out at £10 an hour - but there was some uncertainty about whether that money would go to the library service or to the school. And money raised by community groups cannot be used to pay a trained librarian, which is what is needed. Without trained and professional staff, it's just a room with books in it.

Then last night, Gareth Ratcliffe posted on his Facebook page about a press release that the County Council have issued, about how pleased they are to be doing a deal to save Welshpool Library, which cost over £100,000 to run last year, at the same time as they are trying to close the small libraries. Apparently the Library in Welshpool will be relocating to the Powysland Museum. Hay Library costs only around £15,400, and also has a generous grant from Hay Festival.