News reaches Culture Cuts of outrage among Sheffield's library users and campaigners after the cancellation of a creative writing workshop for children by the poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan.
A press release from sheffieldpolitics.com said:
The event was due to take place at Upperthorpe Library, and was intended to highlight the value of public libraries. The cancellation was reported earlier today by Library Workers For A Brighter Future, a group working in opposition to proposed cuts to public libraries. The cancellation was later confirmed by a spokesperson for Mr McMillan.
A spokesperson for Library Workers For A Brighter Future said: "The event, conceived as a fun and creative way of highlighting the value of public libraries, appears to have caused great concern for the council, with the decision over whether it should be allowed to go ahead passed all the way up to members of the senior management. We view this as a misguided and heavy-handed attempt to silence those of us who want to stand up for our library service and oppose the potentially devastating public sector cuts."
Fortunately, Sheffield library users and workers are taking this in their stride and are organising a mass shush-in at 11 am on Saturday 5th February, part of the national day of action to save libraries. One very much hopes that the council will rescind the ban on Ian.
McMillan told the Guardian: "I was going to do a workshop and they changed their minds. It was for some time in February but it wasn't confirmed."
• Thanks to Jo Cotterill for telling us about this story
