East Dunbartonshire MP blasts council for rejecting plan for three local libraries

The vote came last week during a Council Budget meeting, with the SNP group putting forward an amendment that would have instructed council officers to explore ‘the potential to remodel’ smaller libraries, housing them with other council services.

The proposal was put forward, according to the SNP Group, with the view to safeguard the ‘long-term future and viability’ of local libraries.

The MP has described the decision of Tory, Lib Dem and also Labour councillors to vote against the amendment as “bewildering” and “further evidence of the administration not acting in the best interests of local people”.

There was a backlash from local people back in 2018 when the East Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust proposed closing three libraries – Lenzie, Milton of Campsie (Craighead) and Westerton. The latter sits in the council ward represented by the current joint council leaders Andrew Polson and Vaughan Moody.

Then, five councillors sat on the EDLC board. Councillor Susan Murray (LibDem) supported the closures, Councillors Gillian Renwick (SNP) and Jim Gibbons (SNP) opposed the closures, Councillor Sheila Mechan (Conservative) abstained and Councillor Stewart MacDonald (Labour) was not at the meeting.

Councillor Mechan, who is now an Independent councillor after quitting the Tories, supported the SNP amendment to remodel at the recent budget meeting.

Amy Callaghan MP said: “I simply cannot understand why anyone would vote against securing the future of local libraries. This was a straightforward amendment that would have resulted in a report being produced by officers to look at how best to improve and enhance local services, with the potential of housing small libraries in so-called community satellite hubs.

“It appears that because this good idea came from the SNP, the other parties felt the need to vote it down. It’s bewildering because at the end of the day, the people who are hurt by these political games are the residents of East Dunbartonshire.

“Public libraries play a key role in our communities, giving people access to books, newspapers, and computers that can be used to look for jobs or to fill out social security applications. We should be doing everything we can to secure their long-term future and improve the services available locally.

“This is further evidence of the administration not acting in the best interests of local people. First we had the council not applying for funding to support vulnerable people get new fire alarms, now we have Tory, Lib Dem and Labour councillors refusing to back our libraries. Even the homeless fund agreed last week had to be dragged out of them by SNP councillors.”

She added the SNP secured a number of major concessions from the Tory/Lib Dem administration at the budget meeting, including £100,000 funding to set up a homeless hardship fund.

SNP Councillor Jim Gibbons added that they also secured £1 million extra for affordable housing and and extra and an extra £1 million for roads and environment, for active travel and improvements to paths and footways.

In response, Joint Council Leader Andrew Polson (Conservative) said: ''Despite the SNP Scottish Government's continual slashing of council budgets, this administration has committed extra funding to the Leisure Trust to keep the libraries open.

''This is in stark contrast to the SNP-led Glasgow City Council, where residents had to battle hard over many months to re-open eight libraries, and even then only with a one-off grant from the Scottish Government just for the next year.''

Joint Council Leader Vaughan Moody (LibDem) added: ''This Administration has been praised by Audit Scotland for the way East Dunbartonshire has been run in the past four years. If the SNP are worried about libraries they should ask their Scottish Government friends to stop cutting our grant.”