Tessa welcomes today’s decision at the High Court that Somerset County Council’s actions were “unlawful”.
Somerset County Council wants to shut 11 libraries in order to save money, but in the High Court, Judge McKenna has ruled that it acted unlawfully in not considering the impact on vulnerable people living in the county. Campaigners are particularly concerned about the effects on groups such as the elderly, single parents and the disabled.
Tessa said “This is a great result in the long-running campaign to save our libraries from overly draconian cuts. It is a wake-up call to the County Council Leader that he has to consider the needs of vulnerable people first when making his decisions.”
“The County Council had one of the most generous settlements from the Government of any county in the country, and the Leader’s obsession with cutting services is a cynical drive to reduce perfectly manageable debt levels.”
Tessa Munt
16th November 2011
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Notes:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15752432