Victory?

This news release was issued today, October 26th, by Wokingham Borough Council:

FUTURE LIBRARY SERVICES 

The future of library services in the Wokingham Borough was discussed last night (October 25)
by Wokingham Borough Council’s decision-making executive.

Executive member for internal services Cllr Pauline Jorgensen said:  “The council has been
working with interested parties in a competitive dialogue process to see if there are ways that
we can work with the private sector to improve the library service we offer.  The result is that we
haven’t been convinced there will be enough benefits for our library users to continue with the
process.  We also don’t want to take the risk the key objectives would not be achieved for our
users.

“Wokingham Borough Council is committed to providing a good library service and we are one
of the few councils who have recently opened a new library.  We want to make sure our libraries
continue to meet the needs of today’s users and local communities and will work with them to
explore options to improve the service.  This will include looking at how we can link in or work
with other services such as sports, leisure and culture.  We will also work to ensure we are as
efficient as we can be.”

Save our Libraries campaigners give two cheers after council debate

The "Save our Libraries in Wokingham" campaign is not sure whether to celebrate or not after the Conservatives agreed to revisit their decision to outsource the Borough's libraries service.to the private sector.

Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey, who spoke for the campaign at the council meeting which discussed the petition opposing privatisation, said "We were right to be worried about the future of the libraries, because the only example of a council which has handed their library service over to the private sector is turning out to be a disaster. Eight out of 11 libraries there are threatened with closure. That's not what we want in Wokingham."

Anthony Vick, co-founder of the petition, who also spoke at the meeting, said "By getting so many signatures on the petition, we forced the Council to hold a debate. I am pleased that the outcome of that debate was that councillors will be reviewing their decision on libraries, a decision which was made, without any consultation, immediately after the local elections last May. But during the debate it became very clear that the Conservatives were more interested in calling us scaremongerers than in addressing our fears. They must think through the impact their decision would have on libraries, librarians, library services and residents. Libraries are such an important part of our communities. The council must get this right."

Today's The Day Of The BIG Council Debate

A BIG thank you to everyone who signed our petition. In the end we managed to get 2,374 signatures.  It was handed in to the council in September by Anthony Vick, Rachelle Shepherd-DuBey and Prue Bray.

The large number of signatures was easily enough to pass the threshold for getting the petition debated at a meeting of the whole council.   This is the first time that a petition has had enough signatures to force such a debate in Wokingham.

The debate is taking place on THURSDAY 17^th NOVEMBER at 7.30 pm during the Council meeting at the the Wokingham Borough Council offices in Shute End, Wokingham.   We hope that as many of the people who signed the petition will come as possible to see what the outcome is.

Rachelle, Anthony and Prue will be at the Council offices from 7 pm to greet people and to explain what will happen in the meeting.  But if you would like to know more beforehand, please get in touch by emailing the Save our Libraries in Wokingham campaign at saveourlibrariesinwokingham@gmail.com

In the meantime you can read press coverage about the campaign on the getWokingham website:  http://www.getwokingham.co.uk/news/s/2103304_petition_forces_debate_on_library_sell_off

Thank you once again for your support.

Petition Handed In To Wokingham Council

Last night, Thursday 22nd, we handed in our 2,374 strong petition opposing the privatisation of Wokingham's libraries. 

Because the petition is over 1,500 signatures, according to the Council's own constitution, it should trigger a debate on the privatisation of our libraries at the next Council meeting (November 17th).

We'd like to thank everyone who signed and helped collect signatures. 

The next stage of our campaign will be more difficult. We now need to convince councillors to support us in the debate and oppose privatisation. You can help by telling them how you feel. Write to them at http://www.writetothem.com/ or find them on Wokingham Council's website at http://wokingham.gov.uk/council/councillors/councillors-database/ .

We're now on Facebook

We thought it was time we branched out on to Facebook .

Our page, Save Our Libraries In Wokingham, can be accessed on  

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Our-Libraries-In-Wokingham/241135085913936 

( Once we have 25 Likes for the page we'll be able to ask for a better link ).

It's amazing how many people are still unaware of the Council's plans to to privatise our library service, please help us let them know by showing your support on Facebook.

Once again, the page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Our-Libraries-In-Wokingham/241135085913936 .

Thanks for your support, and if you haven't already please sign either our on-line or paper petition.

Upcoming Petition Signing Events

We have two upcoming petition signing events:

Thursday, 18th August, at Lower Earley Library between 1.00pm and 2.30pm .

and

Saturday, 20th August, at Wokingham Library and Town Centre between 10.00am and 12.00pm(noon).

Please come along and help out, or sign the petition if you haven't already, or if you can't make it, then why not sign the on-line petition? Just click the "Sign Our Petition" logo to the left and it'll take you there.

Over 800 Signatures and Counting

Thank you to everyone who signed our petition during our signing event outside Finchamptead library yesterday.

We have now collected over 800 signatures - on-line and paper based petitions combined - and fully expect to reach our 1500 signature target soon. 

If you haven't already signed our petition please sign it now ( the link to the online petition is on the top left of this page ). We need 1500 signatures to force a full council debate on the privatisation of our libraries.

If you'd like to collect signatures on our behalf please get in touch with us at saveourlibrariesinwokingham@gmail.com and we can send you a petition collection form.