County dub library campaigners as not real people!

This is extraordinary...library campaigners have recently submitted a Freedom of Information request. Well the minutes of a meeting between County Officers and the Council Leader are now available on their website here. Here is one line: "We discussed consultation process so far and what had changed as a result.  It was quite a substantial shift.  It had been helpful to listen to what ‘real’ people were concerned about in communities and not just the campaign voices."

15,000 people signed the petition - we have an awful lot of unreal people in Gloucestershire! Read more of the library campaigns blog on that, to also see the dismissive nature of the Leader of the Council and indeed Chief of Museum, Libraries and Archives Council. I note that I am aware of several other people including myself who have had no response to letters or emails sent to Cllr Hawthorne. Is this not outrageous!

Anyway if you missed an hour long interview with library campaigner, John Holland, on Stroud FM about the library campaign, it is repeated on Sunday at 3pm. You can tune in online at
http://www.stroudfm.co.uk/

A neighbour caught the last half and said they hadn't understood the story before and said it was well worth a listen. One review sent to John on the programme said: "I just heard you on the Art Lot show which finished a minute ago. Brilliant - I was expecting that it would be mainly about music with the interviewer persisting in inconsequential chatter which is what I expect to hear on local radio. Instead he gave you a chance to talk for the whole time about libraries and to put forward the argument against the GCC proposals at length, and so of course the logic of what you were saying came over very powerfully. No-one listening could be unconvinced. I especially liked the bit where he said "the councillors must be idiots". Oh, and I enjoyed the music too. And I now know (remember, actually) who Declan McManus is. Altogether, a great performance - well done."