As reported in the Eastern Courier this week Council received a delegation from a resident incensed at Council plans to carve up the Goodwood Library. As I did earlier this month I find I have to again reassure residents and rate payers this too is not the case.

The delegation is a follow on from the inaccurate reporting in the same paper about three weeks ago where it was claimed we were closing the Library.

In spite of two articles on this blog site from me and efforts by Council’s administration the horse has definitely bolted and truth is finding it hard to be heard. The lady who made the deputation is firmly of the belief that we are going to do what she understands and that we are ignoring our residents.

She has claimed that what we are proposing is “rushed” and “ill-advised”. She also claims we “did not consider library’s regulars”.

Readers please be assured, as with the claims of closure three weeks ago, Council is not proposing as she believes and what we are doing is far from being rushed or ill advised.

Certainly our administration did make both suggestions after a long review into our library services. Library staff have conducted an exhaustive review themselves before Council became familiar with the proposal. This review did involve users of the service.

As reported in my blog post of 8 April Council DID NOT accept our administration’s recommendations and opted that they investigate a number of alternative service delivery models and to consult with the community before presenting a new report to Council in January of next year.

And that is what is going to happen. We are investigating how best our Libraries can serve our people. A number of options have been requested to be part of this review and our community WILL be consulted as part of that process. The process, far from being rushed, will take another 10 months to complete.