Council To Fight Libraries Legal Injunction

Isle of Wight council have decided to fight the legal action being brought to oppose the closure many of the Island’s libraries, VentnorBlog has discovered.

VB‘s been asking IWC if they plan to fight the injunction brought by a Island resident, but to date they haven’t confirmed it – they’ve only acknowledged receipt of the legal papers after it was confirmed that legal aid was granted enabling the action to start.

Buried away
Hidden away in the latest Delegated Decision on the libraries (below) is the following paragraph, mentioned after the letter of representation from Solicitors, Leigh Day and Co …

The Council have responded to the letter advising that it would be opposing the applications being made to the court and that it is satisfied that it will continue to meet its statutory duty in the provision of a library service. It also advised that it has consulted and taken decisions appropriately, taking into account relevant communications

Confirmed
We spoke to Robert Norgrove at Leigh Day, who confirmed that the council wrote to them yesterday saying that they’d fight the action, but didn’t provide any detailed reasoning. It’s expected that it will follow shortly.

We followed up with the council to confirm it is how it reads and are awaiting their reply.

Extending The Support To Community Libraries – Record of Decision

Image: Antmoose under CC BY 2.0