Hundreds protest over Dorset library cuts (From Dorset Echo)

The country needs to save money, can't people grasp that?

At the end of March 2010 general government debt was £1000.4 billion, equivalent to 71.3 per cent of GDP.

http://www.statistic
s.gov.uk/cci/nugget.
asp?id=277

That's ALOT of money, If you want to borrow books, either use EPUB online library, or use the main library in your town. The days of having a library on the end of everyone's street are long gone.

SmithersJones wrote:
The country needs to save money, can't people grasp that?

At the end of March 2010 general government debt was £1000.4 billion, equivalent to 71.3 per cent of GDP.

http://www.statistic

s.gov.uk/cci/nugget.

asp?id=277

That's ALOT of money, If you want to borrow books, either use EPUB online library, or use the main library in your town. The days of having a library on the end of everyone's street are long gone.

Is the wrong answer.
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Libraries aren't just about borrowing books. The irony of Big Society is that the plans are actually going to kill society.

SmithersJones wrote:
The country needs to save money, can't people grasp that?

At the end of March 2010 general government debt was £1000.4 billion, equivalent to 71.3 per cent of GDP.

http://www.statistic

s.gov.uk/cci/nugget.

asp?id=277

That's ALOT of money, If you want to borrow books, either use EPUB online library, or use the main library in your town. The days of having a library on the end of everyone's street are long gone.

my children use the library on a regular basis, if it was not for the library their source of books would be very limited, books are expensive, and that is why people like me and my children need these library's, and as for using the main library in town, it costs me and my family £10 in bus fare!!!! there are plenty of other useless things to cut!!!

'Big Society 'is a meaningless expression Dave has cynically been throwing around before the announcement of draconian cuts - implying that we, the tax-payers, are responsible if we dont step in to bridge the gap.
He doesnt realise from his lofty towers that this country has been running for years on an army of unpaid volunteers, there because of their own sense of community, not because the government has told them to.
Wake up Dave and do some research - services in this country would have collapsed years ago if it wern't for these thousands of people.
Carry on with your policies and you will bring this country to its knees despite them.

nearly dorset wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:
The country needs to save money, can't people grasp that?

At the end of March 2010 general government debt was £1000.4 billion, equivalent to 71.3 per cent of GDP.

http://www.statistic

s.gov.uk/cci/nugget.

asp?id=277

That's ALOT of money, If you want to borrow books, either use EPUB online library, or use the main library in your town. The days of having a library on the end of everyone's street are long gone.

my children use the library on a regular basis, if it was not for the library their source of books would be very limited, books are expensive, and that is why people like me and my children need these library's, and as for using the main library in town, it costs me and my family £10 in bus fare!!!! there are plenty of other useless things to cut!!!

Do you have legs?

Oh Look.. There's Billy Bragg agian... Anyone would think he was working on a new album or something!

In this day and age, sub-libraries are an unnecessary expense, certainly in towns. Do we REALLY need a library in Chickerell, Littlemoor, Wyke AND a main one in the town centre?

I'm guessing you go into town on occasion anyway, use the library then.... Clearly making up lame excuses about £10 bus-fares is not adding any credibility to the case to keep sub-libraries open.

Jane. The big society has been poorly explained, but the intention is that it is a conduit for public opinion, which an elected council can then act upon. Socialism is a farce when it does not allow people to look after themselves, and thousands of people have suffered to satisfy the unelected, technically and scientifically uneducated fools in the council. The idea is to understand (in the case of council pen pushers) Darwinian natural selection and apply it. Given the facts the public will always make a better choose than somebody who's only real concern is their pension. Occasionally the public will make mistakes, but many less than councillors. Anyway, the occasional mistake is what allows natural selection to work in practice.
Regarding volunteers, in capitalist America small armies come out at the weekend to tidy parks and plant flowers simply because they want to. Fortunately they are not constrained by an army of little hitlers.

SmithersJones wrote:
In this day and age, sub-libraries are an unnecessary expense, certainly in towns. Do we REALLY need a library in Chickerell, Littlemoor, Wyke AND a main one in the town centre?

I'm guessing you go into town on occasion anyway, use the library then.... Clearly making up lame excuses about £10 bus-fares is not adding any credibility to the case to keep sub-libraries open.

Funny how you share your login name with a Jam song about a family man who is made redundant by a "smiling sun-tanned boss."
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You appear to - as the old saying goes - know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Community libraries are so much more than just an expendable room full of books.

@Duckorange The concept you seem to be failing to grasp, is that nobody is talking about getting rid of all libraries, they are talking about getting rid of the overstock of very local libraries.

It's ludicrous that in Weymouth and Portland we have 5 libraries when the reality is, we only need two (one in Weymouth, one on Portland).

This is the inefficiency and fat that needs to be cut.

SmithersJones wrote:
@Duckorange The concept you seem to be failing to grasp, is that nobody is talking about getting rid of all libraries, they are talking about getting rid of the overstock of very local libraries.

It's ludicrous that in Weymouth and Portland we have 5 libraries when the reality is, we only need two (one in Weymouth, one on Portland).

This is the inefficiency and fat that needs to be cut.

The cuts will close all libraries on Portland. Where you you stand on that?

Oh my goodness - who is this 'SmithersJones' character?! What an unpleasant, selfish, short-sighted person you are! Just because YOU like reading books on an electronic screen, please do not presume that the rest of us do too. We value our local library more than you can EVER imagine. Go away and shut yourself in your technology-filled room and talk to some of your (virtual) friends. We'll strap our kids into our puschairs and stroll down to our local library and meet our REAL friends there, and read some REAL books. Ggrrrrrrr!

106dl. Thanks. I'm still not sure if your definition of Big Society, although very sensible,is what Dave had in mind.
On a different note, as Ive said before, many people would say that voting for local and County Councillors is democracy in action.
Most of our councillors, apart from a few land-owning grandees , are ordinary people and thus represent the majority of society. I certainly dont agree with all their decisions , but I wouldnt expect to. We vote for these people. If we continue to critiscise them fewer and fewer will come forward.
If we didnt have Councillors, who have to vote on issues and get a majority, what would be the alternative? Certain unduly influential individuals with personal axes to grind?
That said, I would love to see more Independant Councillors.

Duckorange wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:
@Duckorange The concept you seem to be failing to grasp, is that nobody is talking about getting rid of all libraries, they are talking about getting rid of the overstock of very local libraries.

It's ludicrous that in Weymouth and Portland we have 5 libraries when the reality is, we only need two (one in Weymouth, one on Portland).

This is the inefficiency and fat that needs to be cut.

The cuts will close all libraries on Portland. Where you you stand on that?

That one is slightly more questionable that the others, I agree.

There is absolutely no need for libraries in Chickerell, Littlemoor and Wyke when the main library is only 10 mins away by bus or 30mins walking in the fresh air.

Have we become a nation of lazy idiots that need services on their doorsteps all of a sudden.

We should be thankful we have free access to books at all, when many developed nations don't even has this (let alone the undeveloped ones).

Which brings me full-circle back to the £1000 Billion deficit that this country has. Do people really think the pixies will come along in the middle of the night and make it go away?

Change the record, son. I've heard it. While I agree that cutbacks are necessary, they are brutal, uncaring and directed at those least likely to fight for themselves.
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"Have we become a nation of lazy idiots that need services on their doorsteps all of a sudden."
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And we weren't when those local libraries opened?

I am just so surprised that Wyke Regis library is open for once! I have often tried to go into this library only to find it open at the most inconvenient times. The times I have been into this library, I have been the only person in there. If all these people who were in there for the protest, used this service more regular then we would not have to lose this library. I now use the online library available from the dorsetforyou website, or the internet for reference.

The children bring books home from the school libraries (saving me the £10 bus fair into town), these are tough times we live in, and I would rather see a few libraries go, then pay any more tax!

Careful, don't talk about using technology here, the Luddites will hang you out to dry and try to belittle you.

Of course the laughable irony that they are clearly oblivious to, is that they are using technology on an online forum to suggest that anyone that uses a computer has no social life and spends their entire day surrounded by computers.

The Echo once again at the leading edge of local news by failing to report the legal challenge to the Charles Street development as reported on BBC South at lunchtime, 7/2/11 which includes spending by Dorset County Council of an estimated £1.5 million on a new library.

Doesn't it make more sense for there to be a really big beautiful library in the country town next to the new council offices?

The money has got to come from somewhere and unpopular cuts will have to be made. If you want a book, catch a bus up to Dorchester and relax in this all singing and dancing new building.

Many library users have free bus passes, so stop moaning. It's about time the people of Dorchester had some new civic buildings.

I refuse to believe that elderly people in these rural areas will be unable to get to the library to get books out to read. Let them watch Jeremy Kyle instead.

No, it doesn't make sense to build a replacement library in Dorchester at a time when cuts are being made. If Dorset has to make cuts, then don't build the Charles Street library. If Dorset doesn't need to make cuts, then leave everybody else's libraries alone. You can't have it both ways.

Or look at it another way: why not fund all 34 existing libraries (for less than the cost of one replacement library), and if the people of Dorchester are adamant that they need a new library, let them fundraise for the £1.5 million, and if they raise it they can build it. That's fair. And you have that wealthy chap with an interest in Dorchester - why doesn't he provide the cash? You could let him design it, and then everybody would be happy.

SmithersJones wrote:

nearly dorset wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:
The country needs to save money, can't people grasp that?

At the end of March 2010 general government debt was £1000.4 billion, equivalent to 71.3 per cent of GDP.

http://www.statistic


s.gov.uk/cci/nugget.


asp?id=277

That's ALOT of money, If you want to borrow books, either use EPUB online library, or use the main library in your town. The days of having a library on the end of everyone's street are long gone.

my children use the library on a regular basis, if it was not for the library their source of books would be very limited, books are expensive, and that is why people like me and my children need these library's, and as for using the main library in town, it costs me and my family £10 in bus fare!!!! there are plenty of other useless things to cut!!!

Do you have legs?

yes i do have legs and i use them to walk to my local library!!! If you think that a seven and nine year old can walk from tophill, portland to weymouth library, then you are very much mistaken, it would take the whole day. As for online librarys, kids like looking at real books they can pick up and see if they like them, it's not the same as looking at a computer page trying to pick from a picture. I very rarely go into town because of the bus fares, who do you think you are to judge me and my family!!!

Jane. I think this is what Dave had in mind, and the minister confirmed this yesterday on TV, pointing out that the era of big government was over, and councils shouldn't use cuts to volunteering organisations as scare mongering tactics.
I think councils as we know them are well past their sell by date, some might disagree but have to admit that district councils are a totally undemocratic animal. The Chief Executive or more properly the Clerk to the Council in a district council is unelected and cannot be removed directly by the public. Furthermore, the county council arranges things so that most of the important things from a public point of view, bins, planning, traffic wardens, etc, are dealt with by the district council. If one complains to the county council they refer you to the district council who are unelected. The county council take the view that they trust the district council to do the right thing; namely, making sure they all get a gold plated pension.
In the past this bogus arrangement never bothered anybody because people assumed that the councils knew what they were doing!

nearly dorset wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:

nearly dorset wrote:

SmithersJones wrote: The country needs to save money, can't people grasp that? At the end of March 2010 general government debt was £1000.4 billion, equivalent to 71.3 per cent of GDP. http://www.statistic s.gov.uk/cci/nugget. asp?id=277 That's ALOT of money, If you want to borrow books, either use EPUB online library, or use the main library in your town. The days of having a library on the end of everyone's street are long gone.

my children use the library on a regular basis, if it was not for the library their source of books would be very limited, books are expensive, and that is why people like me and my children need these library's, and as for using the main library in town, it costs me and my family £10 in bus fare!!!! there are plenty of other useless things to cut!!!

Do you have legs?

yes i do have legs and i use them to walk to my local library!!! If you think that a seven and nine year old can walk from tophill, portland to weymouth library, then you are very much mistaken, it would take the whole day. As for online librarys, kids like looking at real books they can pick up and see if they like them, it's not the same as looking at a computer page trying to pick from a picture. I very rarely go into town because of the bus fares, who do you think you are to judge me and my family!!!

Don't the schools have libraries?

MaidofDorset wrote:
Doesn't it make more sense for there to be a really big beautiful library in the country town next to the new council offices?

The money has got to come from somewhere and unpopular cuts will have to be made. If you want a book, catch a bus up to Dorchester and relax in this all singing and dancing new building.

Many library users have free bus passes, so stop moaning. It's about time the people of Dorchester had some new civic buildings.

I refuse to believe that elderly people in these rural areas will be unable to get to the library to get books out to read. Let them watch Jeremy Kyle instead.

Totally agree.

Don't forget also that there is already a mobile library service that serves villages who don't have libraries.

thebaglady2011 wrote:

MaidofDorset wrote:
Doesn't it make more sense for there to be a really big beautiful library in the country town next to the new council offices?

The money has got to come from somewhere and unpopular cuts will have to be made. If you want a book, catch a bus up to Dorchester and relax in this all singing and dancing new building.

Many library users have free bus passes, so stop moaning. It's about time the people of Dorchester had some new civic buildings.

I refuse to believe that elderly people in these rural areas will be unable to get to the library to get books out to read. Let them watch Jeremy Kyle instead.

Totally agree.

Don't forget also that there is already a mobile library service that serves villages who don't have libraries.

...that is very rarely in service, because the council's too tight to employ somebody qualified to drive it around. So it stays parked up at Colinton Hall.

There is only very strenuous connections between the cuts at national level with those coming from DCC.

Dorset County was the ONLY local authority to have their budget increased in the settlement, if they're still 'being forced' to make cuts, it's through their own financial mismanagement. This is nothing short of victimisation; hitting hardest those who can afford it the least.

I think the public are getting tired of people who are affiliated with these whining council parasites. Unwittingly or otherwise, the councils in this country have conspired to make life as difficult as possible for the wealth creators. They have no real world experience, and have to justify their existence by applying rules without logic, to people who can see and delineate the exact nature of their stupidity.
Stop whining and see to it that your children get a proper job, because this gravy train is over.