I refrained from commenting on the news that Whitehaven is to have its library and archives under one roof on Scotch Street (The Whitehaven News, June 5) in the hope that a councillor or the Mayor might have done so by a letter in your paper. 
Since this has not happened, I feel bound to raise objections to what, in my opinion, is a “fool-hardy” scheme.
Not everybody makes use of the library, fewer people use the record office, but everyone coming into Whitehaven uses King Street. How are we supposed to attract tourists to the town when our main shopping street has such a deplorable surface, both pavements and roadway? 
That is not all – there is major subsidence on Swingpump Lane, outside the multi-storey car park. The road-way is also sinking at the top end of Tangier Street, and this is for the second time. 
We are constantly hearing how the county council is short of money. Why waste money on this library and archive scheme, when our roads and pavements are crying out for attention? We may well be told that the roads and the buildings are two different pots and that money cannot be transferred from one to another. That is a ridiculous argument. 
We pay our rates to the county as a lump sum – we do not pay separately into the various pots. If humans can assign our lump-sum payments to the various posts, then they can take money from one pot and put it into another.
Finally, on looking at the artist’s impression of the new facility, the provision of parking is going to cease. The record office has parking at the present time. It is restricted parking and rightly so. It is restricted to people using the record office. People come to the record office in Whitehaven from across the county, and from further afield. It is right, courteous, and common sense for these
people to be able
to park on site.
C J Reay
Beckermet