Councillor

Graeme Campbell

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It is sad to read that the Stonehouse primary school figures are some of the poorest in South Lanarkshire. I’ve visited the schools myself and the teaching staff are all working so hard to deliver a quality education at the highest levels expected in the country. Why so many kids are failing is beyond me.

When I started to look into the membership and usage figures of the Stonehouse library, I wanted to compare the numbers to the nearest library in Strathaven (Ballgreen Hall) and the figures below may surprise you:

I first set of figures below relate to the membership numbers at both Strathaven library and Stonehouse library. The area that most concerns me falls within the primary school age group (junior). For every fifteen children that is a member of the Strathaven Library, only 1 child is a member of the Stonehouse library.

Library Membership
Group	Strathaven	Stonehouse	%

Adult	1188	287	22%
Adult concession	137	59	32%
Senior citizen	650	173	27%
Age 16-17	10	3	30%
Age 16-17 concession	17	1	6%
Young Adult	11	7	63%
Teenage	172	24	14%
Junior	894	131	15%
Other (sheltered housing, etc)	7	2	29%

The next set of figures relate to actual library usage in Strathaven V’s Stonehouse and to make this as clear as possible, I’ve split it into simply adult and children only, from the period February 2007 to January 2008. Again, these figures so a massive difference in usage between the two libraries with junior usage at only 14% in Stonehouse compared to Strathaven.

Library Membership
Group	Strathaven	Stonehouse	%

Adult	51,471	11,373	22%
Junior	21,790	3,134	14%

What can be done?

It is clear something needs to be done!

Granted, the Strathaven library at the Ballgreen Hall is massive, compared to the shoe box in Stonehouse.

Up until recently, there was only one Internet PC in Stonehouse but this was recently doubled to 2, “WOW.” To be fair, there is simply no room in the current Stonehouse library for another PC!

I’ve therefore started a project in partnership with South Lanarkshire Council and Stonehouse Community Council to find a resolution to the Stonehouse library issue but the problem is where to put a new library.

One possible solution would be the Stonehouse Institute, once the new council facility is opened on the Strathaven side of Stonehouse. This is only one option so I now await a response from SLC (Education) on their ideas.