Dear Mr Mayor, From two thousand kilometres away in Melbourne I can hear the raucous you and your councillors are causing by even considering the option of closing down the Iluka library and replacing it with a mobile van. I would hasten to say the library means more to the people of Iluka than it does to any other town in the valley. It is our one ‘luxury’ and you want to deprive us of that as well. We haven’t even got a toilet in the main street. We haven’t got a level and watered main oval in town despite promises to provide such. We still haven’t got our path to the beach completed. Despite all this, the townsfolk would probably forgo most of these essentials if it meant keeping the library. On my journey south I have kept a note of how many towns have a toilet accessible from the main street. At the moment it is over 92 per cent. On the way home I may visit those same towns (over 50 in total) and ask how many have had library services reduced in the last ten years. I’m sure it will be nil for those towns that are indeed growing as Iluka is. Iluka people think they are the forgotten people for good reason. On the edges of the valley demographic and with an ageing population you may think that you can get away with it. Not so. There are many ‘Angry Grannies’ on this topic. I hope you park your car close to the Post Office on May 12 when you are in town to listen to the people. There is every likelihood you will see placards and chants along the usual lines of “What do we want?” (Our Bloody Library) “When do we want it? (FOREVER!) Col Hennessy, Iluka