Consultation over library was a sham

WE now learn that Bilton Library is to close at the end of next March.

What a surprise, after so many of us became involved in what is now seen as a sham consultation process (ie the outcome was know to management beforehand).

But how much is to be saved by North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) by this one closure? Maybe at most £50k per annum. This is a pittance compared with the mammoth financial reserves of NYCC, to which ordinary taxpayers have contributed, directly or indirectly.

So, what of the other legacies of this closure? There is much resentment in Bilton, because the library is a focal point in the local community, and also, we receive precious little direct benefit for the council tax, we pay.

So, who is to blame for the loss of our library? The three main parties, but the next time we can vent our feelings on the politicians is in two years time, when the European Elections occur.

However, in the meantime, I should like to ask for a cull of “fat cat” managers at NYCC. After all, they will have less to manage, and fewer responsibilities. Maybe we can add a touch of credibility by asking a full job evaluation scheme to be conducted at NYCC as soon as possible?

Too much information

From: John Gordon, Whitcliffe Lane, Ripon.

LOOKING back over the 80 years of my life, I realise that we are more worried now than we have ever been. Every disaster that occurs in the world is now brought into our home by television.

There is no escaping anything. War, fire and pestilence – we are forced to become aware of every detail, not just in the next village but in Timbuktu as well. In the old days ignorance really was bliss, we just didn’t know about these horrors.

The occasional terrible accident like the sinking of the Titanic awoke us from our sleep, wars meant that men went away and didn’t come back but we had no idea of what they were going through.

No-one showed us the front line. The youngsters born into the world today must think they are already in hell. Do we get too much information?

Snouts in the trough

From: F Henley, Seaton Ross, York.

SUPERMARKETS behave as they do simply because they can (Yorkshire Post, June 11). They are so large that they can at least for a time defy the law of supply and demand.

For pigs, the large reduction in output should have led to a large increase in price. It has not happened; in fact, prices are so bad again that more pig farms will close.

The small extra price to the consumer to leave the farmer a profit would hardly be noticed, for example one penny on a rasher of bacon.

I hear that two more local to me are going out of business to add to getting on for 30 over the last 12 years, so there are not many left.

A co-operative large enough to do any good looks very unlikely. Several years ago a local one started by farmers did everything a supermarket wanted only to be dumped at short notice. It failed a short time later and the farmers lost their money.

Gongs for celebrities

From: David McKenna, Hall Gardens, Rawcliffe, Goole.

AT the risk of being labelled as a member of the spoilsport brigade, I feel that I must comment upon the latest batch of gong-holders identified in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list (Yorkshire Post, June 11)

Along with that old hoofer, Bruce Forsyth, we see third-rate comedians, past their sell-by-date singers and an Olympic band of athletes all being rewarded for doing their jobs, for which they are already paid rather handsomely anyway.

People who really deserve recognition for what they do in the voluntary sector in their various communities or those who serve the public on a daily basis: librarians, teachers, nurses, doctors and who are brought in to help justify the other bunch, are not usually given front page access as was old Brucie.

Remembering that the last crop of Olympic medals reputedly cost the taxpayer around £15m each in training costs and all the add-ons that go with such fripperies; that so-called celebrities and members of the “Team GB” entertainment faculty receive rewards far in excess of their worth, is it not about time that either the whole system was laid to rest or that everyone in the celebrity circus was granted a knighthood or other sign of their importance to the country after they have either cut their first disc or starred in their first film?

The whole set-up reinforces the old maxim: “To those that have it shall be given: to those that have not it shall be taken away.”

Out of touch with reality

From: Michael Stephen Mycroft, Wilton, Pickering, North Yorkshire.

MY response, to quote John McEnroe, was “Are you being serious?” when the new BBC boss Lord Patten said the BBC may lose some top sport events in the cuts (Yorkshire Post, June 13).

Doesn’t he realise that the BBC actually does not cover most of the top major sports events?

Another classic example of our peers being completely out of touch.