Nearly a hundred people braved a frozen November night to protest against plans to close Churchtown Library. The public meeting, held at St Cuthbert's Church Hall in Churchtown last Thursday, heard passionate pleas from many residents to save the library.
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| Local councillors united to Save Churchtown Library |
Nigel Ashton said " We have been organising a petition
through local shops and schools as well as online, and there are over 2,000
signatures already in support of keeping our library open. Children from local
schools have organised their own demonstrations and banners in support of
Churchtown Library, without any prompting. A Facebook page called Save Churchtown
Library has also been set up by a local resident, which now has over 1,200
members."
Cllr Ashton explained how there was a viable alternative to
the closure plan, called Option C, which would keep the entire branch library
network in the Borough intact, including Churchtown. He urged everyone present
to take part in the Council's consultation, so that the cabinet were left in no
doubt about the strength of feeling.
Many of the people at the meeting spoke of the benefit of the
library to the community. The loss of the library would be severely felt by
many groups, including people with disabilities, children, elderly people,
those who needed the Internet to access benefits or seek jobs, and many others.
The long term effect on health and wellbeing could easily outweigh the cash
saving of closing the library.
The meeting also heard from the other councillors present,
who were united in fighting to save the library, David Rimmer, John Dodd,
Marianne Welsh, Pat Keith and Sue McGuire.
Nigel Ashton then proposed that the meeting should set up Friends
of Churchtown Library as a group to take the library campaign forward in the
short term and to provide support and help to Churchtown Library in the long
term. This was unanimously agreed.
Take part in Sefton Council's library consultation here
