DECISIONS on whether to close public libraries in Wellington and Wiveliscombe have been postponed for at least two months.

Somerset County Council has extended to June 13 a consultation exercise on its plans which was set to finish on April 22.

The council said it wanted stakeholder groups to have more time to ask questions and to give itself longer to receive feedback on the controversial proposals.

It also hopes the extended consultation period will help threatened communities come up with suggestions for working in partnership with the county to keep their libraries open.

The move came after a series of questions were put to library chiefs by Cllr John Thorne, one of Wellington’s two county councillors.

Cllr Thorne, a critic of the plans, said: “I am extremely disappointed with the way this consultation has come about and I have listed eight key questions which reach to the centre of the issue.

“There seems to be a disconnect between the council’s legal duty to provide library services and its need to reduce costs in the face of falling Government revenue support.

“It looks rather like the county council has decided what it is going to do, but first needs to tick the ‘public consultation box’ in order to avoid the debacle of seven years ago when it embarrassingly and expensively lost a Judicial Review.

For the full story see this week’s Wellington Weekly News.