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Prepared by Dave J.Quigley for presentation at the DCMS on Thursday 9th June 2011.

This document, along with the original files passed to the Secretary of State on my behalf by Andrew Turner MP, and the files handed in with this letter today is a formal request to the Secretary of State requesting him to do what has failed to happen with the other challenges to Library Closures, that is, as per the Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964, to set up a public inquiry to look into the library closures that are a total breach of the Act which I understand it is the Sec of States statutory duty to uphold. (Something that was done by the previous government in 2009 over the Wirrals intention to close libraries.)

Much of my submission was made through a file that was delivered to the Secretary of State by my local MP Mr Andrew Turner. Mr Turner received an answer from the Minister (Ed Vaizey). (copy included in file) Many Island residents are very concerned at the Isle of Wight Councils plans to close or pass control and costs of 5 of its libraries to parish councils/community groups. We have had advice from two separate QCs both are confident that our case in the High Court for a Judicial Review is a good one. However legal aid for the two ladies who are taking this course had been stopped as a solicitor from the Legal Services Commission says that the two barristers are wrong and that the case has virtually no chance of winning. After discussion with other groups following the same course, it seems the LSC have stopped all legal aid for the flimsiest of reasons and this leads us to believe that the stop on legal aid has nothing whatever to do with the strength of the case and the fact that the councils concerned are in flagrant violation of the Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964, but rather political influence has been the cause of the blockage of legal aid in order to save the LSC money. How can a solicitor judge the worth of a case when, before taking court action the solicitor always takes a barristers advice? There is currently an appeal against this decision before the LSC but they seem reluctant to give a hearing date! I wonder why? During the period since the Council first thought of closing libraries to save money, there was a reply to our MP Andrew Turner from Grant Shapps on 17th Jan 2011 that stated Library closures should only be considered as a last resort when all other possibilities have been looked at. This included the sharing of senior officers with other neighbouring authorities or sharing departments, eg the legal, planning, human resources or finance departments. The IW Council said they would not even consider any of this as the only neighbouring councils were on the mainland and this would have meant too much travel! Currently several of the top officers including the CEO and the head of the legal department commute daily to the Island, at the Island taxpayers expense, one of them, I understand, from Essex! This fact would make the amalgamation/sharing even more of a financial saving as travel costs would be reduced! Even David Cameron, at PMs questions stated that The budget for libraries included in the Government grant for 2011/12 was at the same level as in 2009/10 and therefore there was no reason for any public library to be closed. Currently, nationwide there are almost 500 libraries facing closure. Does this mean

that the DCMS does not back Mr Camerons statement? (reply from IW Council in response to an FOI request in file) We are not only presenting our own case today , but we are representing a wide spectrum of Islanders. Included in the documentation we are delivering today is a full submission from the Bembridge Library User Group (BLUG). This is for the attention of the Secretary of State and/or the Minister. There also a selection of many emails that we have received supporting both the legal challenge and this presentation. We are aware that the Secretary of State has already received a number of submissions from residents of the Isle of Wight and we feel that it is time our concerns were listened to and acted upon rather than being pushed aside and ignored. We sincerely hope that the Secretary of State will instigate a full public inquiry into the actions of the Isle of Wight Council as we feel the 1964 Act demands.

The IW Councils Consultation/Negotiations 1) The actual consultation and the response forms held in libraries were not advertised and not on view. The library staff had been specifically ordered to keep them out of sight, to only show them if specifically asked for. They were also told that they were to discuss the possibility of closures with no-one and they were under no circumstances to help a member of the public with advice on filling the response forms in. 2) During the consultation, which came at very short notice, immediately after the Christmas/NewYear holiday period, a number of petitions were set up, and between them they gathered almost 9000 signatures. Although the council accepted the petitions, Cllr Brown stated that most of the signatories were not fully aware of what they were actually signing so therefore the 9000 were not counted when the figures were given that only just over 1000 people responded to the consultation. 3) Prior to the consultation, no individual Equality Impact Assessments were done, it was not until a meeting between council staff and the steering groups trying to save the 5 libraries earmarked for closure that an officer of the IW Council (Astrid Davis) asked the steering groups if they would help her to retrospectively produce EIAs. Four groups agreed, one (Bembridge) later withdrew that agreement. The Brighstone group refused point blank to which Ms Davis replied In that case I will have to make up one for Brighstone. Cllr Pugh, the leader of the council was also present at this meeting and all present heard what was said. Im not sure of the legalities but it looks as if Ms Davis was admitting that she would produce a fraudulent document!

Parish Councils/running libraries/double taxation 4) In the original consultation document the council encouraged Town and Parish Councils to take over the running of the libraries they intended to close. Bembridge took legal advice from the National Association of Local Councils and were told that Town/Parish Councils were not authorised to run libraries as they are not library authoritiesso the IWC was trying to get them to go outside of their legal remit. 5) I queried that if it was illegal for a parish council to run a public library, then surely it was illegal for them to raise the council tax precept to fund local libraries which they were not supposed to run. I have since heard that Sandown Town Council, whilst there was still a likelihood that their library would close, took legal advice and I have since been told that the reply they got was that it is illegal for any parish council to raise precept funds to finance a library! I understand this comes under the heading Double Taxation and is a breach of the Local Government Act? Why is the Local Authority, who have a statutory duty under the Public Museums & Libraries Act of 1964 trying to get parish councils to commit an offence! In fact East Cowes TC raised their precept for the year 2011-12 by 21% , and BembridgePC raised their precept by 10,000 and I understand Shanklin TC have also raised theirs solely to fund libraries not run by them but run by voluntary groups on their behalf. So it would appear that the IWC have already incited three councils to illegally raise their precepts! Afterthoughts 6) During the negotiations that followed the cabinet decision to close the libraries at Bembridge, Shanklin, Brighstone, Niton and East Cowes it would appear from comment made by some of those involved that the IW Council have been deliberately obstructive and it appears that in all 5 cases, their preferred option is for the libraries to close totally, thus allowing them to dispose of the buildings which contain the libraries in order to help fund the refurbishment of County Hall. In this time of severe financial restraint we cannot see the point of closing public services that will hit the Island and its main source of income (tourism) whilst at the same time spending 4.8million (plus interest) refurbishing County Hall, and setting up a department to oversee our Roads PFI scheme (still 2 years away) at a cost of a further 700,000 per annum. The total saving from the closure of 5 libraries, half of our public toilets and all our tourist information centres is miniscule when compared to the extravagant amounts the council spend on cosmetics for County Hall and extortionate fees paid to consultants that have, over the last 6 years, reduced the 36million reserve fund they inherited to considerably less than 10million with nothing to show for it! In an audit in Jan 2010 the IW Council was also found to have a building maintenance backlog of 53million. Where has this money gone? What has happened to the Big Societythat our Prime Minister shouts about? It appears that it just isnt resident on the Isle of Wight we have the Fat Cats still getting fatter and the rest of us being robbed blind by our Council and our reserves vanishing into a black hole and our public services being decimated. All this was decided

by the council despite having been presented with alternative budgets that would have prevented all the cuts and at the same time presented a balanced budget. Who is paying for this action? The young, the elderly and the disabled of the Isle of Wight - just what sort of society treats their most vulnerable citizens like that and at the same time takes measures that harm its own main income source?

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