Gail Coleshill and Louise Bray, representing Mobile Library users across the district, handed in some of the petitions they have collected requesting that the Council retains the rural routes.
Seen here presenting the petition to acting Chair of Council Sarah Bevan, Gail and Louise are concerned many residents who use the mobile library are elderly, not car users, have young children or mobility problems.
In her statement Gail said these are the people about whom the Council should be most concerned in maintaining services in rural areas.
Gail presented the petition to the acting Chairman of Council at a Full Council meeting on 10th September saying that she had received signatures from villagers in Wellow, Bathford, Priston, Hunstrete, Compton Martin, and Hinton Charterhouse and had had messages from people including teachers in Shoscombe, Wellow, Combe Hay and Midford.
Gail said in reply to a question from a Councillor about numbers of users:
“The numbers of users at present may be below in some villages but that is no reason to exclude those villages from the service. More use could be made of the Mobile Library to provide other Council services and to make residents more aware of the visits by the mobile library.”
Louise Bray, who relied on the mobile library service after an eye operation, was pleased that the Cabinet member was now proposing to consult other options.
She said:
“I am sure that many residents are relieved to know that the consultation on the Mobile Library route review will now include more options than just scrapping the village routes. I hope the Council will make efforts to consult residents and parish councils in all the villages presently visited by the library.”
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Village Phone Boxes Under Threat Again
Under threat: Cllr Neil Butters, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate Gail Coleshill, and residents in Monkton Combe next to the threatened village phone box.Telephone boxes in 6 villages just outside Bath are once again under threat of removal by BT. Notices have been posted in the traditional, red boxes offering local communities the opportunity to ‘adopt’ the boxes without the telephone service so as to preserve them as a heritage feature. However if the box is adopted, the telephone service will be withdrawn. And if it is not adopted, they will press for closure anyway.
At a meeting of Monkton Combe Parish Council on 25th August 2009 several Parish Councillors expressed concerns about the move and pointed to the facts that there are 400 young people in the village, and that mobile phone coverage is in effect restricted to Vodaphone.
Councillor Neil Butters (Liberal Democrat, Bathavon South) said:
“Six out of seven telephone boxes in this area are now under threat – another local service at risk. This follows BT’s threatened removal of the service in Midford and Shoscombe last year which residents successfully saw off.
“I believe that there is a good case for retaining the telephone service to these kiosks given the poor mobile phone signal in the area and the fact that not everyone has access to a mobile phone. The geographical separation of the villages also means the service can be vital in an emergency situation.”
Bathavon West watch your telephone boxes!
The only people who use a phone box these days are men having affairs so the wife can't check the Mobile Bill and drug dealers for obvious reasons. I understand the sentiment of the locals wanting to preserve them but who is going to pay for the repairs when they are vandalized, as they always are. The poor toothless Police can't stop it.
ReplyDeleteThis may seem a bit pessimistic but it is the reality of the situation.