Two-and-a-half cheers!
I posted last month about the threat to our small but beloved local public library branch, and many others in the county, and the huge groundswell of public support and protest that the threatened cuts had generated.
Today... this! (County tears up library closure plan)
This by no means indicates no cuts or closures will happen - huge savings still have to be found, after all - but it does recognise that the county council completely underestimated the extent to which local people value their libraries, and the degree of flak they were in for, and that they have decided they need to go back to the drawing board and try to work with those local communities to find affordable outcomes rather than presenting their electorate with a fait accompli.
I am so cheered; not only about the potentially better outcome itself, but also because so many local children, in particular, campaigned vociferously for an issue they really cared about, and it would have been a pretty depressing introduction to politics and democracy for them to find that all that effort made no difference whatsoever.
Next, the really hard work starts for the local libraries' friends' groups, I suspect; how can we actually keep them operational?
Today... this! (County tears up library closure plan)
This by no means indicates no cuts or closures will happen - huge savings still have to be found, after all - but it does recognise that the county council completely underestimated the extent to which local people value their libraries, and the degree of flak they were in for, and that they have decided they need to go back to the drawing board and try to work with those local communities to find affordable outcomes rather than presenting their electorate with a fait accompli.
I am so cheered; not only about the potentially better outcome itself, but also because so many local children, in particular, campaigned vociferously for an issue they really cared about, and it would have been a pretty depressing introduction to politics and democracy for them to find that all that effort made no difference whatsoever.
Next, the really hard work starts for the local libraries' friends' groups, I suspect; how can we actually keep them operational?