Insult to campaigners for Central Library

Coun Scott asserts that the new central library “will” be in the heart of the city centre, implying the council has already made up its mind not to retain the existing building as a library, surely an insult to campaigners fighting to retain the Central Library.

Coun Scott goes on to mention that Green councillors did not budget to save the existing central library.

This would have been an impossibility given that the council still refuses to release the quotes it has obtained to renovate the building despite numerous requests from opposition councillors and others to do so.

Coun Scott then makes the rather absurd and bizarre criticism that the Green Party are “all protest placard and no action”.

Not only is this factually inaccurate given that the Greens have been the first to call for action on, amongother things, the Sheffield Living Wage and webcasting of council meetings, but also shows a lack of understanding of his own party’s history, given the Labour Party started life as a protest movement.

If they were serious about giving our fine city the library service it deserves, Coun Scott and his Labour colleagues on the council would be better off finding ways to restaff the 16 branch libraries they have hived off to voluntary groups and to retain our beloved Central Library as a library, as opposed to slandering their political opponents.

Kieron North

Sheffield