CALLING ALL AUTHORS! SAVE SHROPSHIRE’S LIBRARIES!

So, over to Michael…. who is asking you to email him with your name and type of writing you do, to add weight to the campaign:-

The massive attack on public good continues.Shropshire’s libraries are now definitely in the firing line. The Council currently operates 22 libraries, 6 in the larger towns of Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Oswestry and Whitchurch plus 16 smaller ones. In a bid to save £1.3 million, the Council is trying to find “alternative management” for the smaller ones and hopes that they will be taken over by “community organisations”. If they fail, they are proposing reduced services or even a mere mobile library for these areas.

The Council has a statutory duty to “provide and promote a comprehensive and efficient library service”. A few vans trundling around Shropshire’s lanes is neither going to be efficient nor comprehensive. There appears to be little fight-back. Church Stretton did recently put on a decent show of opposition to the relocation of their library from a dedicated building in the town centre to the secondary school on the outskirts. The locals were ignored. That’s clearly the tactic: exempt the six larger libraries where stronger and more public opposition can be expected, then pick off the smaller ones, one at a time. Before tackling the big ones.

What we need is a plan which embraces all the libraries in the county as a single entity. A plan which will ensure, indeed enhance, the current service. There is a good example in Suffolk, possibly others elsewhere. What we need, above all, and NOW, is a huge public campaign to demonstrate that we are not prepared to see our library service diminished any further. We’ve bailed out the banks with billions of public money. Let us now bail out our libraries.

Please add your name to the campaign NOW. Send it, with a very brief description of your work (e.g. author, novelist, playwright, poet/illustrator, journalist etc.) to Michael Green at [email protected] or on 01588 640525.

NOTE. By adding your name to the list you are not giving permission for its use in any way. Your name will not be publicised or associated with anything without your full prior knowledge and permission.