Kidderminster Library gallery users 'not given enough time' to comment (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

• "Having attended the "consultation" at the library myself and having "engaged" with the council officers there, I have come to several conclusions about these proposals.
  Firstly the proposals are entirely driven by the need to save £150,000-or-£120,0
  00- or £100,000 (all three figures were mentioned) rent paid by the adult and communities directorate for their base at Elgar House. Whatever the real figure the reason for destroying the only purpose built gallery space in Wyre Forest is entirely financial.
  Secondly, most of the officers reluctantly agreed that the alternative gallery space as proposed is a second-rate, make-do and mend arrangement, that would be very much inferior to what presently exists.
  
  Most particularly what became clear is that the proposals to create 90 desks for 139 staff, is poorly thought out and will not justify the £300,000 budget made available by WCC effectively to wreck the gallery.
  
  This local version of "hot desking" is not the same as similar initiatives by neighbouring councils. Birmingham City Council for example has introduced 'hot desking' that means 3 workers share one desk or work from home or other bases.
  
  This system is called 'agile working' in Birmingham and if it were introduced in Worcestershire the 139 workers in question would only require approximately 47 desks or just over half the desk spaces proposed by our own county council. Another way WCC is out of step with other local authorities, is its failure to work co-operatively with Wyre Forest District Council to resolve the financial imperative that is driving these ill-advised, unpopular and largely uncosted proposals.
  If WCC and WFDC worked together an arrangement cound be made to use WFDC empty office space to house the 'hot desks' the county council want to establish.
  
  Other councils in the West Midlands and indeed all across the country are finding ways to merge services in order to bring about savings.
  Four Black Country boroughs for example have met to discuss sharing library services in a bid to save up to £70 million each over five years.
  
  So why are our own myopic local authorities here in Kidderminster so out-of-step with these sorts of creative solutions and why is 'civic vandalism' the only strategy WCC has got?
  
  These plans represent a failure of leadership, a failure of financial management and a failure of imagination on behalf of both councils.
  
  Time for some changes I think."
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