NOTEBOOK by BILL HEANEY
Everybody knew Balloch Library was going to be sold by West Dunbartonshire Council for private housing.
The fact that it was and is now being turned into new homes underscores the cack-handed way the council does business.
Residents of one of the most deprived areas of Vale of Leven knew their library was going to be shut by the Labour-controlled council.
But they went ahead anyway with their protest from the public gallery in the council’s Church Street chamber.
Inevitably, two local councillors, Labour leader Martin Rooney and his colleague Hazel Sorrell were targets for the rough edge of the tongue from the protesters.
They didn’t want their community library to be crammed into the St Kessog’s/Haldane Primary Schools campus.
There was so much going on in the library as it was, with it being well patronised by people of all ages from Haldane and Jamestown and Balloch.
They wanted it kept just as it was.
Old folk treasured it and the children loved it, but the shameless Labour administration appeared determined to take it away from them – despite the fact that the opportunity to keep it in place was always there.
It couldn’t be true that the area once served by the likes of Labour stalwarts such as Johnny Carson and Tom Biglie was going to have to suffer from a serious cut such as this.
But it was. Johnny come latelys to the “party of working people” added it to the pile of other important public services that have been either scrapped or had their funding slashed.
Folk like Clare Steel and Michelle McGinty. The Labour administration should be ashamed of themselves.
I hope they are prepared for the criticism Labour will receive when there are still children in the local community who care barely read or write.
The shouting match that went on at the end of the meeting between the Labour councillors and the community representatives in the public gallery was disgraceful.
The voters in Haldane and Balloch won’t forget what happened when the next local government elections come around – and who can blame them?
Add Balloch Library and all the other cuts local residents have had to suffer – and continue to suffer from – often needlessly and you have the very good reason why their standing in the polls has plummeted.
Oh, and don’t mention the grass that needs cut and the potholes that require repairing. Or the bins that are missed …
We are told by a publication that is allowed to ask the council’s conceited communicators questions – we are not – that Balloch Library was sold to a private company in November last year for £150,000 after West Dunbartonshire Council declared the building surplus.
What ever happened then to the homelessness “emergency” in the public sector?
Now, plans have been lodged to build new homes on the library site.
Planning documents submitted to the local authority show the site being split with each home appearing to have two bedrooms, a bathroom and an en-suite.
The single-storey homes are finished with an open-plan dining and living space.
More information can be found on the authority’s planning portal at west-dunbarton.gov.uk.
The application is due to be considered by the council’s planning committee at a later date.
You have to ask yourself, do we really need a Council at all here?