THE Wellington Library Friends Group has moved a step closer to its aim of offering a range of meetings in the library with the award of a grant from Wellington Town Council.

This will enable the group to have the necessary insurance to use the library out of hours. The group is planning a series of meetings throughout the year on a variety of subjects.

Group spokesman Brian Samuels said: “We hope to complement the series of meetings run by the Local History Society and maybe have demonstrations, too.

“Talks can be backed up by the wide variety of books available in the library. We’d be interested to hear about the subjects that would interest people.”

With the library staff the group is holding a coffee morning on June 28 when people will be able to formally join the group. Like the Local History group membership will offer a discount on admission to meetings.

The library undergoes some changes shortly, with the introduction of slightly earlier closing in the afternoons. This is compensated for by opening on Thursday mornings from June 2. The net result is a reduction of 30 minutes a week, one of the smallest in the current round of cuts to the Library Service. This reflects the comments of the recent County Libraries survey that Wellington is ‘a very busy library’.

The first of the – out of hours – talks is on July 28 with author Chris Ewans as the guest speaker. This is in conjunction with the Somerset Big Read.

More information about this and the Children’s Summer Reading Challenge will be available shortly.