SLAM has initiated legal action against Surrey County Council over its plans for the mobile and static library service.
Public Interest Lawyers, who represented Gloucestershire and Somerset library campaigners in their successful legal challenge, sent a pre action protocol letter yesterday, on our behalf, to SCC’s CEO David McNulty for the purposes of a judicial review.
The letter asks that the Council reverses its decisions made over the course of 2011 in relation to the library service. SCC has until the 10th January 2012 to provide a full substantive response.
In short, we are challenging SCC’s decision-making process and their lack of scrutiny, both of which we believe to be inadequate and unlawful.
We have taken this action with great reluctance, having exhausted all other means of trying to hold SCC to account over their library plans.
We have also become exasperated at SCC’s avoidance of any discussion or consultation with Surrey residents on the library plans, and also the Council’s increasing hostility towards legitimate protest (blocking SLAM’s emails, and witholding information in relation to Freedom of Information requests, to name just two examples).
We believe we have been given no other choice than to hold SCC to account by pursuing legal action.
Funding of the case
We have already incurred costs in initiating this action and continue to do so. We have set up a “fighting fund” to help pay for the case and ask anybody that can help to make a donation to the account below:
Lloyds TSB
Account Title: SLAM
Account Number 48371668
Sort Code: 30-99-80.
If you are kind enough to do so, please also email to let us know at slamtreasurer12@gmail.com so that we can return any money in excess of what is needed.
Happy New Year!
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