COMMUNITIES such as Wellington and Wiveliscombe were being pressured into reaching agreement to help run their public libraries or risk losing the service, county councillors were told last week.

Friends of Somerset Libraries (FOSL) said the way the county council was running a consultation on the future of libraries meant communities could not be open-minded about the issue.

FOSL spokesman Peter Murphy said the exercise felt like a re-run of 2010-11 when the council tried to withdraw funding for 11 libraries across the county.

FOSL was formed to fight the closures and successfully brought a Judicial Review against the council, which was forced to climb down and continue funding the service.

Now, the council has demanded £500,000 of savings over three years from the library service and said 15 of its 34 libraries could close if local communities do not form partnerships help to run them.

The plan would be to replace them with mobile or outreach library services, which lawyers have told the council would be sufficient to meet its legal duty to provide ‘a modern and efficient library service that meets the requirements of their communities within available resources’.

But Mr Murphy told councillors: “FOSL has presented a preliminary analysis to officers which suggests the county council could offer funding to all community library partnerships within the budget options available.

“An entirely volunteer-run solution is not one we support since we believe that in most communities it is not sustainable.

“FOSL does not understand what outreach services as proposed might look like and has doubts such an approach would fulfil the statutory duty laid on the council to provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient library service’.

“A community now served by a library would be worse served through outreach or a mobile stop.”

A 12-week public consultation exercise on the future of the libraries service has so far attracted nearly 2,500 responses from across the county.

The consultation runs until April 22 and Cllr Hall is set to take final decisions on any closures in June.

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