With Keith Fagan taking part in a phone-in on Vectis Radio from midday today, we thought it would be useful to give you some background.
Back at the end of February VB broke the news that as member of the Isle of Wight council’s Ethical Standards Committee, Keith Fagan felt so strongly about the evidence that Cllr David Pugh had given to the Parliamentary Select Committee looking into libraries closures, that he felt compelled to resign.
Two days later, the County Press chose to report the same story as “Campaigner resigns after libraries row” with quotes from Cllr Pugh labelling Keith Fagan’s actions as a “politically strong stance”.
VB spoke to Keith Fagan yesterday and it was clear that he was very keen to point out that he is neither a campaigner nor political.
Cllr Pugh evidence was “misleading”
“I am not a campaigner,” he started, “I just felt so strongly that the evidence given by Councillor Pugh was misleading and as such had no option but to resign as I had to bring this to the attention of the DCMS evidence committee and now the people of the Isle of Wight.”
Keith Fagan had served, for five months, as the Chair of Bembridge Library Users’ Group (BLUG) before stepping down in July 2011, so claims a closeness to the details of how the council had handled the library changes. Indeed, BLUG hadn’t been afraid to highlight problems with the council of the process.
His DCMS submission
VB asked for Keith Fagan’s submission to the DCMS, but he declined, saying that he didn’t think it was right to do so before the DCMS had concluded its findings.
We did persuade him to provide two sections – the Introduction and Summary, which we’ve put below.
INTRODUCTION
The Isle of Wight Council’s decision to cut frontline services, including popular, successful and rural libraries as a first resort has now been in the public domain for some time.
The purpose of this submission is not to debate the rights and wrongs of the decision. It is the responsibility of the committee to decide on those matters. However, it is the oral submissions of councillor Pugh to the Evidence Committee that is in question.
This report will present the facts as gathered by the Library Campaigners on the Isle of Wight which are at odds to those presented by Councillor Pugh.
This submission concentrates on the library in Bembridge where the facts were gathered and submitted here are first hand. However, this submission does contain vital facts presented to Keith Fagan that are relevant to the purpose of this Emergency Submission.
In the Summary, Keith makes the declaration his submission is about providing “access to clear and concise facts”, not a “personal or political attack” on Cllr Pugh.
SUMMARY
I, without reservation, confirm that this is not a personal or political attack on the Leader of the Isle of Wight Council or the Council’s Decision; it is to ensure that the Evidence Committee of the DCMS has access to clear and concise facts when considering the Library Closure Programme, particularly when reviewing the Isle of Wight.”
