CAMPAIGNERS fightling proposals to relocate Stonehaven library have lodged a formal complaint with Aberdeenshire Council.
Stonehaven is community that is once bitten and now twice shy – many residents are still angry about the closure of the purpose-built Invercarron Resource Centre for Older People. This amenity with over 30 user groups was closed in order to become a vaccination centre – with no public consultation.
Despite obvious local concern about the proposals to re-house Stonehaven library at Viewmount, Live Life Aberdeenshire have not announced any public consultation events – hosting only an engagement session targeting invited library users.
Save our Library campaigner Kirby Porter told The Bellman: ”Right from the beginning of the so-called community ‘consultation’ with its prominent Viewmount library design plan on full display, I feared something more was going on than Council Officers were prepared to admit to. The relocation of the library to Viewmount seemed a done deal.
”The appearance of Tim Stephen, Kincardine and Mearns Area Manager, at a meeting of the Stonehaven and District Community Council and lack of answers to a series of questions I subsequently put to him did nothing to ease that fear.
”I felt as if I had no other choice but to make an official complaint. The matter is that serious.”
Complaint could go to Ombudsman
Aberdeenshire Council has a well defined two-level complaint procedure. If after those two stages the complainant is not satisfied with the response they receive, they can take their complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, who can look at whether organisations have made decisions the right way.
Mr Porter, who was head of library services in a large London borough, said he was determined to challenge Aberdeenshire Council’s approach using the full complaints procedure if necessary.
He said: ”It is our library. Not just those who use it but the whole of Stonehaven. For now and for the future.
”Viewmount is not a viable site for a library in a town of Stonehaven’s size. There are major questions over its ease of access, accessibilty and safety. And all a without even a whiff of proper consultation. Something which the Council has a legal obligation to undertake and whose stated policy is to consult widely before any major developments are considered.
”We must not let them get away with it.”