COUNCILLORS in Wiveliscombe are mulling the future of the town’s library amid public apathy once its lease and funding runs out next year.
Two public meetings were held in the town earlier this year and the council has set up a library working group chaired by its own vice-chairman Cllr Tim Parker.
But the working group was told only seven survey forms were returned by people who attended the meetings, who totalled 55 the first time and only 23 on the second occasion, some of whom were at both.
And only two people had expressed an interest to volunteer in the library, while nobody said they wanted to help form a new charity or community interest company to take the library forward.
However, the Wiveliscombe Town Hall Trust had said it could be interested in taking the library forward as a registered charity.
Working group members were told the trust would meet to discuss the issue and then report back to it.
The trust reopened Wiveliscombe’s Town Hall as a community space two years ago after it had remained empty and unused for more than 60 years.
Somerset Council has been providing financial support for library staff and rent of its premises in The Square, for which a lease is held by the Wiveliscombe Area Partnership.
The library, which opens weekly from Thursday to Saturday and also on Tuesdays, has been run as a community library partnership since 2018, when the then-Somerset County Council proposed closing a number of libraries across the county in a cost-saving move.
Wiveliscombe was one of several communities where people came together to take over their local libraries and keep them running under a variety of different charity-type organisations.
Previously, the town also faced the threat of losing its library in 2010, at which time people set up the Friends of Wiveliscombe Library (FOWL) to save it.
Now, town councillors, who are split on the issue, have to decide whether to pick up the financial cost of the library from 2026 onward or find an alternative way to keep it open.
A spokesperson for FOWL said Wiveliscombe Library was ‘one of the town’s most precious resources’.
They said it had always been the intention since the community library partnership was formed in 2018 to not just ‘keep the library open’.
The spokesperson said: “Plans were put in place to turn it into a vibrant cultural and community hub.
“It has hosted many events, talks, and workshops for locals of all ages.”
The annual Wiveliscombe Literary Festival, an eclectic mix of events and workshops which started in 2022, was one example of the success of the partnership.
Other regular community events in the library include a story club, which runs on alternate Tuesday afternoons to encourage people to write and share stories, and a digital advisor session on Tuesday mornings.
Wiveliscombe’s Somerset Cllr Dave Mansell said the library was an important community facility which local people should try to keep open whether or not they actually used it.