Mums claim North Ayrshire Council deleting online comments amid library closure row

A group of concerned mums have accused North Ayrshire Council of ‘suppressing free speech’ over controversial plans to close libraries in next month’s budget.

Cat Tierney and Linda Cameron insist Facebook comments they left expressing their disappointment at the prospect of losing either Saltcoats or Ardrossan libraries were deleted by the local authority before the social media account's admin limited who could comment on their posts.

They believe this was done because council bosses know how loved the sites are, with Cat launching a petition to save the places she affectionately calls ‘community hubs.’

At the end of February, councillors will meet to set the budget for the next 12 months, with a raft of public service cuts being considered as part of a bid to plug a £16 million financial blackhole.

And Cat is worried that closing the place that helped her settle in the community two years ago would rip the heart out of the area.

She said: “I see it for so many other people how much of a lifeline it is for them.

“I’ve been meeting with people from the other groups, like the Mindful Makers, Football Memories, all these different ones, and loads have people have said the exact same thing, that’s how they’ve met their network, it’s good for their mental health, it’s a safe space, so many different things.

“I am very passionate about saving it, especially after speaking to other people.”

Linda added: “I think they are not thinking about how a library impacts people of the community. It’s not just about going to borrow books anymore, there’s so much more, it’s a safe space for people.

“If I hadn’t met Cat and some of the other mums at Bookbug, I truly believe I’d be depressed with post-natal.

“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have got out.”

Deleted

Cat’s petition now has over 1300 signatures with the plan to deliver the petition to council HQ in Irvine on January 23rd.

But it has been the recent deletion of her Facebook comments that has found the mum-of-two questioning the motives behind some of North Ayrshire’s decision-makers.

She explained: “The council’s North Ayrshire Libraries Facebook group put up a What’s On in Saltcoats Library this month post on Monday.

“I commented saying it was a great schedule, but what a shame you are planning on closing such an amazing community hub.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “Any decisions regarding the Budget will be made at the Councils Budget setting meeting in February. Until then, it’s business as usual for the service.

“We are currently analysing feedback we received during our recent engagement with communities and this will help inform councillors when they meet to set the budget in February 2025.

“Facebook posts from the library service that are simply advertising what's on do not usually have the ability to comment active on them.

"The pages are not monitored so any comments made or questions asked get missed causing frustration to those who engage, hence the function is disabled. On this occasion, the comments function was left active and someone did comment. In the comment, they added a link to the petition.

“All staff are in a challenging position at the moment as decisions are being made relating to their futures so are required to be impartial in the process. Hence the comment was removed.”

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