To say she would have been appalled at the closure and sale by West Dunbartonshire Council of Balloch Library would be an understatement.You can bet your bottom dollar that the celebrated author Agnes Owens would have been out with the demonstrating women and children of Haldane, the housing scheme where she lived, making her views known on the subject of budget cuts by the Labour administration.
Cuts which led to the closure and sale of the library by the Labour council, even though they had an eleventh-hour opportunity to save it before it was moved across the road into a cramped site in the Balloch Primary School campus.
The Labour administration was pictured at the meeting where they confirmed, despite a protest from the public, the closure of Balloch Library.
Agnes Owens was a celebrated Scottish author who lived in the Vale of Leven and was well known in the community. She was born 100 years ago on the 24th May 1926.
The Agnes Owens Archive has been established in the Alexandria Library to keep her memory and work alive.
There will be an event there on Saturday, 23rd May, to celebrate her centenary.
It will be the beginning of several events to highlight Agnes’ work and life. If you have any memories or photos of Agnes, the library staff would love to see you there.
Agnes was a good strong local woman with a social conscience. It is nice and fitting to see Alexandria Library have named a room after Agnes in the Library.