Council’s Proposed Plan Meets Even Wider Resistance Over Move to Viewmount
Special report by Kirby Porter
Members of the Save Stonehaven Library Coalition were given a very warm welcome at Saturday’s Stonehaven Farmers Market. More than 200 people signed their petition on the day with many more indicating their support for the campaign by saying they had already signed it online. Campaigners were overwhelmed by this response. There was a general sense of bewilderment at why the relocation of the library from the town centre to Viewmount was even being considered.
The suggestion was described as ‘crazy’, ‘unbelievable’, ‘unfair’, ‘ill-informed’, ‘baffling’ and ‘just plain stupid’. Viewmount was considered by almost everyone who signed the petition as the worst possible location for a library. ‘Too far from the town centre’, ‘too difficult to get to’, ‘Inaccessible for a whole range of people’ were just some of the views expressed.
More specifically, one woman who goes to the Wednesday morning sessions facilitated in the library said. ‘I go to the library session every week to meet up with my friends. It’s a real lifeline for us. They’re all women like me, in our seventies and eighties. I don’t know what we’ll do if the library moves. None of us will be able to get to Viewmount. We’re all signing the petition. I only hope the Council will have a change of heart’.
Another woman, this time in a wheelchair said, ‘Viewmount? Don’t make me laugh. I’d never get up that hill in this. Even with my husband’s help. It’s just too steep. I don’t understand how anybody could think that the move to Viewmount is a good idea.’
People were also frustrated by the lack of clear information from the Council on why Viewmount was chosen as a possible library site in the first place and how much the move might cost.
One man said, ‘We’ve been here before with this Council. We need proper consultation this time’, and another thought that the council engagement session that he attended was the worst he had ever experienced. ‘It was chaos’, he said. ‘We weren’t even allowed to discuss the move to Viewmont and that was what most people were excited about. Yet there were plans for what a library in Viewmont would look like in in plain sight. About a quarter the size of what we have at the moment. What was that all about?’ What indeed.
As one woman said, ‘This Council is the bane of my life. They take everything that is good about this town and ruin it.’
The campaign continues. If you haven’t been able to sign online — or don’t have easy access — the Save Stonehaven Library Coalition will be back at next month’s Farmers’ Market so you can add your voice in person. The petition also remains open online for anyone who prefers to complete it digitally.
Thank you,
The Save Stonehaven Library Coalition
You can complete the petition at https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/v5wF5MmQNw