Despite a powerful protest outside Leicester Town Hall and a packed public gallery inside, Labour councillors voted to keep their deeply unpopular plan alive - a plan that threatens the future of community centres, libraries and museums across the city.
At the Special Full Council meeting, Conservative Leader Cllr Hemant Rae Bhatia put forward a motion calling for the consultation on the future of library and community centre closures to be scrapped, for the Museum Service ‘Vision’ to be paused, and for savings to be found by cutting the Council’s bloated senior management bill, rather than vital frontline services. Labour voted it all down.
Outside, residents from every corner of Leicester came together. Pensioners, parents, campaigners, and young people are united by one simple message: Stop the closures. Save our spaces. Inside the chamber, Labour councillors refused to listen.
Not a single Labour member broke rank - not one stood up for their own communities.
Cllr Bhatia said: “Labour had a choice: stand with the people of Leicester or protect Sir Peter Soulsby and their own failing leadership. They chose the latter.
Hundreds came out to say no to these cuts. We heard them loud and clear. Labour ignored them. The fight doesn’t stop here.
We will continue taking this campaign to every community, every ward, every street. Leicester deserves better, and tonight proves it won’t come from Labour.”
For more information on the consultation for libraries and community centres, click here.
