So Lincolnshire County councillor Nick Worth, Executive Member for Libraries, says (Echo, October 2): “I have nothing to apologise for”.
Nothing to apologise for? After being responsible for wasting vast amounts of Council Tax Payers’ money (thought to be as much as £100,000) on a flawed and futile public consultation to which the outcome was already pre-determined, he feels there’s nothing to apologise for?
This is a pretty incredible statement after his proposals were judged flawed in the High Court in a Judicial Review.
So now the consultation has to be done all over again, at yet more public expense, and in the meantime library hours have already been cut all over the county. None of the benefits promised by Mr Worth have been delivered – just the cuts and the wasted money.
And Lincolnshire is now seen across the country as the failed, dead-beat, backward county that values its citizens so highly that it considers a decent library service too good for them. Even a fellow Conservative local MP, Sir Edward Leigh, has criticised the proposals.
And the new consultation itself (about which Mr Worth laughably says “We are open-minded, so if you have a proposal, please complete the survey.”)? Does it give the public the chance to tell the County Council that it wants the library cuts reversed? Not at all. All it does is to provide ‘the opportunity for respondents to suggest alternative means of providing library services in Lincolnshire, which are comprehensive and efficient, and therefore consistent with the council’s legal duties, and affordable within the council’s budget.’ No scope for telling the County Council to stop the cuts and get on with the job of running a proper library service – just the chance to come up with better ideas for hacking back our libraries than the half-baked ones dreamed up by Mr Worth.
A County Council Executive report has already accepted that the response to the original consultation ‘was predominantly negative and that those who responded were generally opposed to changes to the library service.’
It also accepted that there were criticisms of the consultation process itself. Why not do the job you’re paid to do, and give us a decent library service that the county can be proud of – rather than ashamed of? Not so long ago, another Lincolnshire public servant claimed that he had nothing to apologise for. He too was responsible for mistakes that had to be sorted out by the costly intervention of the High Court.
He too brought the county of Lincolnshire into disrepute. He too cost Council Tax Payers large amounts of money. That man was Alan Hardwick, Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire. He had to apologise in the end.
Come on, Mr Worth – take the honourable course of action. Apologise to county taxpayers for the mess that you’ve presided over and give the public what they’ve told you they want instead of battling on with these ludicrous and damaging plans.
— J Thorpe
Originally published by Lincolnshire Echo.
Nick Worth has shown arrogant contempt for the public. He is unfit to hold public office and should resign.
Keithpp's Blog 
October 15, 2014 at 6:01 am |
And now the really professional and financially astute Lincoln City Council are looking at getting a private company to run Lincoln Castle. With the millions of pounds spent on it to bring in tourists,( may I say excellent restoration ), the powers that be want the profits to be skimmed off by a private company.
October 15, 2014 at 10:43 pm |
Disgraceful.
But then this is the very same Lincoln City Council that tried to flog The Lawn.