Parents march to Southampton city centre to save Millbrook library (From Daily Echo)
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Parents march to Southampton city centre to save Millbrook library
6:15pm Thursday 11th February 2010 in
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- By Matt Smith » Politics and business reporter
ANGRY mums marched on the Civic Centre in Southampton to deliver a message from 600 residents: "Don't close our library".
Brandishing placards and banners they demanded Tory council chiefs ditch plans to shut Millbrook library.
They claim the library in Cumbrian Way, Millbrook, is vital for after-school clubs and free internet facilities.
.Campaigner Steve Plumridge handed leisure bosses a 600-name Liberal Democrat petition urging a rethink.
He accused the council plotting to save up to £25,000 a year by shutting the library while splashing £85,000 on a spin doctor He said: "It is an absolutely disgrace that the city council is going to close this library, which is a vital service to the local community.
"What will the closure of Millbrook Library do to help the education of the local children?"
Mum-of-two Susan Wilcox, 47, who joined the demonstration, said she used the library every day with her young children, hiring six books a week.
She said they used the library computers to do their homework after school.
"It's vital for their education. Why should our library be closed. It's being used by the whole community. It's always busy."
Retired management consultant Clive Tunley, 72, said: "The obituary at the moment is within easy distance. If you don't make them easy to use people won't use them. Saying you can go to Shirley. Well, as far as I'm concerned that means a bus trip or car journey."
Mum-of-two Suzie Rawlins, 34, added: "Millbrook library is a local community focal point. Taking that away will deprive the community of a place to go and meet and get to know each other."
Cabinet member for leisure councillor John Hannides accused Lib Dems of trying to "mislead" residents.
He said the library had to close to make way for a project to regenerate Cumbrian Way over the next year.
Cllr Hannides said a mobile library would be brought in while ten maisonettes, ten shops, and offices are to be knocked down to make way for 56 houses and flats. And the redevelopment will included one of five new retail units.
He said: "We have left the door open that one of those units could be brought into use as a library. If it's judged there is a clear and overwhelming desire to see a library it's something we could reflect upon."
Comments(16)
Reality-man
says...
7:54pm Thu 11 Feb 10
Laughing
says...
7:58pm Thu 11 Feb 10
Reality-man wrote:You idiot !!!
Like anyone in Millbrook can read??!!
Condor Man
says...
7:58pm Thu 11 Feb 10
Laughing
says...
8:04pm Thu 11 Feb 10
The library is hardly ever open and is the size of a shoe-box anyway.
southy
says...
8:16pm Thu 11 Feb 10
be glad when may 6th is here and we can say goodbye to this tory control council.
southy
says...
8:23pm Thu 11 Feb 10
Condor Man wrote:come oct this year brownhill girls, greenlane boys (millbrook school) and mansel infants and junior schools will be pulled down. for more housing.
There are SEVEN schools on the Millbrook estate. Plenty of library facilities and space for after school clubs.
so there be more parents with young one's on the estate but there will be less schools and less shops.
Condor Man
says...
8:49pm Thu 11 Feb 10
southy wrote:are there any less people? you have to admit that the primary schools on the estate are very poor. As for the shops there is a lot of padding with charities taking advantage of cheap rates. Had Millbrook (like all estates), been designed properly they would have put all the services along a main road, like Kendal Ave (as what evolved in Portswood, Bitterne, Shirley and Woolston). Instead the small clustered parades are neither use nor ornament.
Condor Man wrote: There are SEVEN schools on the Millbrook estate. Plenty of library facilities and space for after school clubs.come oct this year brownhill girls, greenlane boys (millbrook school) and mansel infants and junior schools will be pulled down. for more housing. so there be more parents with young one's on the estate but there will be less schools and less shops.
Laughing
says...
10:19pm Thu 11 Feb 10
southy wrote:Not 10 shops there !!!
10 shops that are there now, and all 10 are in use, but when they have finished there will only be 5 shops, so whats going to happing to the other 5 traders, taken away people choice where to shop, there,s only one empty building in cumbrian Way, millbrook housing estate, redbridge. and thats the closed down NHS school dentist building.
be glad when may 6th is here and we can say goodbye to this tory control council.
Library
post office/shop
nursery
hairdressers
tattoo's
take-away
sandwich shop/ready meals delivery
stuartjebbitt
says...
10:42pm Thu 11 Feb 10
When you start closing libraries it's VERY worrying..
It seems SCC value spin doctors (perverting the truth) rather than protecting it. Scrap your 85k per annum spin doctor first, not the library
Condor Man
says...
11:49pm Thu 11 Feb 10
stuartjebbitt wrote:The whole spin doctor thing is a complete red herring. Libraries cost a lot more to run, staff and stock with books- which of course are not all paid for by crisp vouchers. There is plenty of community space in Millbrook, like in schools, where a library can operate using the existing book and IT services.
Libraries and Librarians have always been guardians of the truth and it's availability to ALL people (not just the wealthy) When you start closing libraries it's VERY worrying.. It seems SCC value spin doctors (perverting the truth) rather than protecting it. Scrap your 85k per annum spin doctor first, not the library
Once again it's propaganda spread by Lib Dums to try to drum up their flagging support in the city. I certainly don't want to go back to a council run by a pompous professor from Eastleigh.
working.mummyof2
says...
12:30am Fri 12 Feb 10
MrGMan
says...
11:35am Fri 12 Feb 10
How many times is this one man going to be scrapped?
southy
says...
3:06pm Fri 12 Feb 10
Laughing wrote:there is ten shops there and all are in use, the post office hold the very corner where there is no door to this unit and market is 2 shops in one, on one side of them is another shop that is 2 units has one, car accessories, going back to the corner next to the post office unit is the library, then hairdresser's, chinese take away, then your sandwich shop, tattoo's and then the nursery thats 10 shops, and all are in use.
southy wrote:Not 10 shops there !!!
10 shops that are there now, and all 10 are in use, but when they have finished there will only be 5 shops, so whats going to happing to the other 5 traders, taken away people choice where to shop, there,s only one empty building in cumbrian Way, millbrook housing estate, redbridge. and thats the closed down NHS school dentist building.
be glad when may 6th is here and we can say goodbye to this tory control council.
Library
post office/shop
nursery
hairdressers
tattoo's
take-away
sandwich shop/ready meals delivery
the only building that is closed and boarded up, is the nhs school dentist building, whitch could make a very good social club.
mr nobody
says...
7:15pm Tue 16 Feb 10
mr nobody
says...
5:34pm Thu 18 Feb 10
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Stephen McAthey says...
7:44pm Thu 11 Feb 10