My school teachers and university tutors used to tell me, “if you assert something state the evidence to back it up, eg: relevant statistics”.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In The Scone Advocate of August 27, 2015, Shire Councillor Campbell is quoted as saying “With the explosion of modern technology available the reading of books seems to be diminishing…”
Councillor Campbell hopefully means good, but does not provide any evidence to support that claim.
I have asked the Upper Hunter Shire Council to provide me with the statistics for the number of books loaned by Scone Library for each of the financial years 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15.
With the secret sale of the old council building still fresh in our minds, the Scone Library’s role in providing books on loan, reference books, Book Week events, book readings etc, and the Scone Neighbourhood Resource Centre services should, in my opinion, not only be appreciated but lauded by all and their future guaranteed by council.
Scone has been described in the printed media as “the town whose council secretly sold its library”.
The Upper Hunter Shire Council decided at an extraordinary meeting on June 11, 2015 to sell the old council building and for $740,000.
But there was no public record of that meeting or the vote until Friday when the Newcastle Herald started asking questions.
The lack of a public record was blamed by council as “an administrative error” (I kid you not).
A source has informed me that the old council building is worth more than $740,000 for such a prime site.
It is believed that the buyer, Jason Brooks, approached the council wanting to buy the building and the building was then sold without going on the market. Jason Brooks has declined to comment on the matter.
Upper Hunter Shire Council has said that the building could be first of many sales of “unused or underperforming assets”.
The council denied to the Newcastle Herald that the sale of the building was rushed through in response to the need to lodge its Fit For The Future submission to the NSW Government.
Mayor Wayne Bedggood seems to have declined to comment on future plans for the Scone Library and SNRC.
It is thought that the council’s Fit For The Future submission shows that it has not set aside capital funds for a new Scone Library or possible SNRC.
As one of the characters in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ observes “curiouser and curiouser”.
Whither Scone Library and SNRC?
