Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 14:51:21 +0100
From: Jonathan Michael Foonlan Tsang <[email protected]>
To: <...>
Subject: Cambridge Central Library

Dear Lucy,

I am writing to you in your capacity as Councillor for the Newnham ward.

As a County Councillor, I am sure you are aware of the plans to
privatise the top floor of the Cambridge Central Library, putting its
administration under the company Kora, part of the Regus Group.

Putting aside ideological issues for or against privatisation or
concerns about the company's unethical practices such as tax avoidance,
this still worries me: According to a Freedom of Information request,
the planned changes will involve a great reduction in the number of
desks, for which demand is already much greater than supply. This is
particularly foolish at a time when exams are coming up for university,
sixth form and school students.

The proposals were never very transparent at all, and it is all the
more worrying that a petition to oppose them was initially not accepted
by the council's 'Democratic Services Manager' on a technicality,
dismissing the voices of three thousand people.

I understand that you will be meeting on Tuesday to discuss the
proposals. I therefore implore you to do all that you can to oppose
them, as well as getting other councillors to do the same. Please help
to defend not only the library, but the principle of transparent
government.

--
Jonathan Michael Foonlan Tsang
Queens' College, Cambridge