Sirs,
Further to correspondence from Al Ross (Letters 6th Aug) we, his Point councillors, are equally frustrated, as both he and his wife, with the way this matter has been dealt with.
It would be easy to try to pass the buck, point the finger at others and come up
with excuses.
We are part of the process, tasked with dealing with the issue, and integral to the final solution/outcome.
To this end we have been working within the bureaucratic framework (councillor speak for ‘tangled web’) to unstick the future of library service provision from the molasses within which it appears to have been stuck.
The proposal to ‘move to replace the vans now’ was defeated because it had no parameters,
no concrete idea of what to replace them with, no range of options to choose from,
hadn’t been remotely thought through, and frankly made no sense.
It was like being asked to agree to go into the Fishermen’s Co-
Alasdair MacLeod and I sit on the budget board where this has been discussed, at length, and a statement will hopefully be forthcoming at our next meeting on 22nd August.
Finlay Stewart and I sit on the education, sport and children’s services committee to which this has now been delegated (changing the ‘goalposts’ has meant further delay, but this was our decision as councillors, to ensure a speedy resolution, not the fault of officers) and have actively, with the full backing of the chair, chief executive and council leader, lobbied for a prompt resolution.
In relation to the library service, including the vans; the general concepts are now mapped out, and the options which will articulate these will be in the full options appraisal at the series next month. Then we get to determine the future.
Finlay has spoken to Mr Ross on several occasions, and I have mailed him on every single step of this ridiculously tardy process, to update him on the (non)progress. Even from the meetings where the discussion has been ‘live.’
His frustration has been our frustration, but the future of the service has never been in any doubt.
We are fully committed to its retention, but need to choose the correct way forward so that it meets the demands, and reflects the needs, of its core customer base and hopefully beyond.
I’d like to think that we plan to grow the service.
Mr Ross’s ‘efforts via his councillors’ may have, as of yet, ‘come to naught’; but they have focused them on what is an issue (given our ageing demographic) that is, and will increasingly be, vital to many.
As Mr Ross, rightly, points out; the funding was identified in 2016.
I’ll apologise, on behalf of the comhairle, for the delay in bringing this to resolution quickly.
Cllr Norrie MacDonald
Sgire An Rubha
Letter: Councillors frustrated over library van stalemate
8 August 2018