It was like an electric shock finding out that ‘my’ library at Tweed Heads would not be re-opening after Christmas; in fact, not opening for up to nine months.
The Tweed library has a collection of 47,000 items, makes 307,000 loans and services 73,000 people per annum in the catchment areas of Tweed Heads, Banora Point, Terranora and Piggabeen.
‘What are we supposed to do?’ On offer is a very limited service of 4,000 items from a small room adjacent to the auditorium, a mobile library bus once a fortnight or drive to Kingscliff.
What a crock of sh.t! As usual, zero community consultation from a council that advertises, ‘We look after people and places… and are in this together’.
I started contacting councillors, first being Warren Polglaise, who spouted platitudes of getting a brand new library. So what are we meant to do meanwhile Warren? The old crocodile was back unmoved, uncaring.
Next was Katie Milne, answering machine, but no return call.
I then called Ron Cooper thinking he would appreciate the complete lack of community consultation. Another answering service but Ron did ring back and I queried the obvious solution – why not house the library in the large auditorium?
Ron said he would look into it and rang back later advising the auditorium was booked. ‘Well unbook it, you can’t treat our community like this’ I said. ‘Oh! We couldn’t do that’, said Ron. ‘Someone should be sacked for this’. ‘Oh! We couldn’t do that’, said Ron who recently portrayed himself in the media as a bureaucratic ‘head kicker’; but now elected has apparently gone to butter.
I then rang Pryce Allsop, the Murwillumbah councillor, and finally found someone who at least sympathised. ‘We got pushed into a workshop about this as soon as we were elected’, Pryce said, ‘And they [bureaucracy] told us there was no other way, unless we wanted to increase rates, so I went along with them’.
So Tweed library users have been sold out for a mere $40,000 per annum auditorium income. What a grubby new Tweed Shire Council we foolishly voted in.
Terry Sharples, Tweed Heads
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