CHATTERBOX - Lochwinnoch

A point of view
In the course of a conversation the other
day I mentioned that I had written to the
leader of Renfrewshire Council to tell
him that, even with my new lightweight
wheel chair, I could not access the
proposed library at the Mckillop Hall
because the ramp is too steep and far too
dangerous for me to come down. I then
said, that in his reply, Mr MacKay told
me that he had referred the matter to
various people including his colleague
Mr Davie Arthur.
My neighbour turned to me and said
“You do have to remember that Davie
Arthur is your representative on the
Council”. That statement hit at the very
root of everything I stand for.
David Arthur does not represent me on
the Council. Just who he represents I
have no idea, but when he stood up in
our first Public Meeting about the
proposal to close our present library and
said that he was voting for the proposal
to move the Library to the McKillop and
that he was using his brains and not his
heart, he forfeited all rights to speak for
me because he had not then heard many,
if any views from the floor, no message
had come to me by any means from the
Council to say they had any such
proposal in mind, I had found no one
across Lochwinnoch who knew anything
about the proposal ahead of the
Community Council's call to a Public
Meeting. Absolutely nothing was posted
locally anywhere. There is no such thing
as a Public Notice Board in
Lochwinnoch.
So who does David Arthur represent and
what agenda does he subscribe to? Is
there an SNP Party ruling to close some
libraries and reduce the scale and
staffing of others?
Is this a local SNP matter or one from
Executive level? The MSPs all deny it is
their doing.
Is it nothing at all to do with politics and
is this whole thing a matter of the local
Chief Executive and his staff making a
decision and more or less telling the
elected Council what to do and when?
Rehabilitation at Home
Is it not enough that two very able and
necessary part time library assistants
have been dismissed to the loss not
only of themselves but all of the
community?
What ever else it is, this latest Library
project is poorly thought out,
deceitfully announced, totally
unrepresentative of local feelings and
resolves only problems the Council has
itself created.
I am old enough to remember when
Public servants were just that, when it
was an honour to be on the local
council and for the Mayor to be made a
Justice of the Peace.
This has brought to the forefront of my
thinking the need for us all to look
again at what Councils are for.
One thing absolutely definite is that a
Local Council is not a Parliament. We
do not elect councillors to make
decisions on our behalf as we do
members of Parliament.
We elect them to represent our points
of view. We expect our views to be
taken into account. We do not expect
to be told that a decision cannot be
changed because six months has not
expired.
The First rule for the Council so far as
I can make out is: Don't whatever you
do put the brakes on, steer a better
course or go into reverse.
What you do is Part two of Rule one:
crawl away into some corner and hide
your miserable self until the danger
has passed.
We have almost precisely a year to
make sure the Council understands
that we have had enough of their ways
however they are defined.
Let us begin by giving notice very
clearly we have had enough of drifting,
of inefficiency, of salaries being paid
for poor performance. We have heard
enough about how good we are from
the Council. Overall they are not very
good: some are and some are not. On
this matter of our Library and the
Annexe they have failed in every
I offer physiotherapy services in the comfort of your own home
including :
Injury rehabilitation / Relief from back pain
Managing long term conditions
(eg COPD, Parkinsons, stroke or heart problems)
Massage – remedial and relaxing
Palliative physiotherapy
If you think I can be of service, please contact me:
Sabita Stewart BSc (Hons) MCSP 07940 587943
sabitathephysio@gmail.com
Health Professions Council: PH91860 Member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy: 083677
6
regard of us and our librarians.
I am not asking Mr Mackay to do me a
favour and will he please put in a ramp
just for me. I have told him in a
courteous way that he has a problem.
His permanent staff have set about redesigning
the inside of a building for an
unnecessary purpose and have neglected
to obey the law in one particular regard
and that is that all people shall be
treated equally. That means that along
with any other disabled person I should
be able to get myself into and out of any
public building. His staff has so far
failed to make that possible. They and he
can hide behind so called building
services decisions, in this case that this
is not a new building and a ramp exists.
That is so. But that ramp is not usable
because it is too steep and it has only
one hand rail so even if I could get up it I
could not get back down again.
I understand that last year a 17 year old
disabled lad could not get into his
Natwest Bank in Yorkshire and asked for
help from the Bank which then
suggested he could do his transactions
on the pavement. The youngster's
parents objected, lawyers became
involved and took the matter to the High
Court. Natwest/RBS lost and the Judge
ruled that the bank must provide a low
rise lift for disabled people. The
youngster was awarded £6000 damages
and the Banks costs came to £200,000
or so I understand.
I am pointing out that there is more to
moving a Library than knocking down a
wall and doing some re-decoration.
If Mr Mackay and his Council fail to
make proper provision for disabled
people at any of their premises then
they, like the rest of us, are subject to
real Laws, both UK ones and European
ones. In particular the Disability Acts.
They could argue that they do not have
the funds and that is always a case; but a
Judge might reasonably ask. “That being
the case Mr Mackay, why were you
embarking on the project in the first
instance?”
Alan Lovegreen April 23rd 2011
16 Graham's Avenue. Lochwinnoch
Editor’s Note—this is Alan’s personal view
and is not endorsed by the editorial team
or Lochwinnoch Community Council
Sorry Sabita!
Due to an unfortunate production problem
local physio Sabita Stewart's
Rehabilitation at Home ad last month
was missing the last digit of her Health
Professsional Council registration number.
This meant that anyone trying to check her
credentials would have been unable to do
so. We apologise to anyone who was
inconvenienced by this error and of course
to Sabita. We hope the gremlins won't
strike this time. Ed.