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Tuesday 5 April 2011

Extraordinary Council Meeting on Libraries

The Lib Dems and Tories have called for an extraordinary Council meeting on libraries.  The Mayor has called one for 13 April, which will be two days after the Executive makes a decision.

As at the budget meeting, neither the Tories or the Liberal Democrats or the Tories are suggesting an alternative strategy.  Indeed, they submitted their request for a meeting before the final Library proposals were published, so they have not engaged with them at all.

Calling for a full Council meeting is rather an odd thing to do under the Council's present Constitution.  Until about 2000, Full Council meetings could overule decisions by Council committees, so you can see the purpose.  Under the Executive system in place since then, Full Council no longer has the ability to change Executive decisions, so it is really just a talking shop.

1 comment:

Rachael Newberry said...

Well, surely that the meeting has been called should say something about the strength of feeling and the sense of unfairness. It's never too late James, to change your mind.

The letter states:“We must note the massive support from local people across Brent for the campaign to save local libraries, as evidenced by local activities and the petitions presented to Brent Council. It is also only fair that the Council debates the alternative proposals made by local groups to save local libraries in response to the limited options agreed by the Executive as part of their ‘Library Transformation’ proposals.

Your own blog comments strongly suggest that there is no room for negotiation once the decision has been made. Rather than seeing it as a 'talking shop', how about seeing it as an opportunity for rediscussion.

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