[02
NOV 00] CWN COMMENT
Council Should Come Clean Over Toilets
It’s
getting close to a farce, but the library toilet issue will simply
not go away, and it about time the cabinet genuinely listened.
Full
marks to them on inviting the protestors to take part in the
meetings to air their concerns. But it was a shame they ignored all
their pleas.
The
word “consultation” is starting to take on different meanings in
this city. The library staff and users want to be asked if they
support the principle of new toilets replacing the information
centre, and if the information centre should be moved upstairs.
The
cabinet seem to think that consultation is something carried out
after the central decision has been made. They want the opinion of
staff over the logistics of the move.
Consultation,
it was proclaimed at one meeting, is not a veto. The information
centre staff shall work where they are told. There are no plans to
consult the public.
Even
some of the other members of the Labour group have not bought this.
They told the cabinet to consult staff and the public and then look
at the decision again.
Unfortunately,
the cabinet agreed among themselves that they had already done this,
and pressed on.
The
final decision is still in a vacuum. Last month the scrutiny board
which is looking at the cabinet’s actions on this agreed that it
would be a nonsense to press ahead with the work.
They
pointed out that although staff consultation has been carried out,
no-one actually knows the result of it.
In
the meantime, thousands more people are likely to sign the petition
led by the indefatigable Messers Moore and Harris.
If
the council is keen to enter the brave new world of the new
millennium and listen to the people it represents, then it should
take this more seriously.
Otherwise
we could see another expensive and unpopular white elephant like the
Broadgate Canopy and the West Orchards escalator, to name just a
couple.
Toilets
are desperately needed. But let’s not risk alienating people from
the library to get them.
The
library service already needs £2 million spending on it to avoid
failing dismally to achieve national targets, and a drop in visitor
numbers could see it becoming the first in the country to be taken
over by the government.
Half
the city centre is a building site at the moment. The council should
be using its weight to ensure that more toilets than are currently
planned are put in the Lower Precinct instead.
SEE:
[02 NOV 00] TOILET
PROTESTORS GET THEIR PETITION OUT AGAIN
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