Gazette Comment (From Gazette Series)

Gazette Comment

RUMOUR has it Gloucestershire County Council is going to employ a rag and bone man on a consultative basis. But what could such an old-fashioned fellow do to help such a large organisation in our modern high-tech world, you may ask?

Well, the rag and bone man owns a horse and cart, which will prove very useful to the big thinkers at Shire Hall in showing which way round the two go.

In closing off Dursley's Castle Street car park so some temporary buildings can lie idle for more than two months the council has put the cart well and truly before the horse. In fact, this cart is so big that it is preventing up to 40 cars parking in the centre of the town.

There is no sense at all in having the temporary buildings there any longer than is necessary. It is absolutely ridiculous to have put them in place without ensuring the utility supplies will be connected.

What will it try next? Opening the temporary library before moving the books there? Start construction of the new library before the existing one is demolished at the site?

These kinds of decisions do not require any expertise, they just require some common sense. Is that really too much to ask?

And why it will be necessary to lose the library service for two-to-three weeks during the switch to the temporaty site? What takes so long?