LIBRARY campaigners have welcomed the scrapping of a £1.15 charge for reserving library books by the newly elected leadership of Essex County Council (ECC).  The library campaign group SOLE received the news in a letter from the new ECC leader Peter Harris on Thursday (14/05) afternoon.

“We are obviously delighted that the reservation charge has been scrapped” said a SOLE spokesperson. “A big thanks to the new leadership for recognising the damage this was going to do, particularly to the smaller libraries, where a lack of shelf space leaves users with no other choice than to order books in from other libraries.

“However, the biggest thanks must go to the residents of Essex who backed the campaign. To all the people who signed our nearly 4,000 strong petition, and who lobbied the new Reform councillors. As acknowledged by the new council Leader, this really made a difference. It again shows, like the campaign that saved our libraries back in 2018-19, that when we come together ordinary people are not powerless. Together we are strong, and people power has worked again.

“We will though be keeping a watchful eye on the running of our library service, to ensure that we don’t see cuts happening elsewhere to compensate for any loss of revenue. The new leadership will find a library service that is already cut to the bone, and that took another loss of £100k to the Book Fund in the budget. The new leadership needs to recognise that any cuts to libraries are a false economy. Libraries are for instance so important for the wellbeing of many people, and any cut will only increase the budget elsewhere, such as social care. Our libraries are already excellent value for money.”