Have your say on plans for future library services across Essex
The survey is open till 20 February 2019.
Here is my response:
The
library is a community hub or focal point. It is about more than borrowing
books, which is why I wouldn’t take too much attention to the stats about the
decline in book borrowing. The library is about the only non-privatised space
left in many localities. In Prettygate, for example, there is a library, pub,
post office, dentist and some shops. Closing the library would take away the
only one of these which is free to enter and sit down in and not have to buy
something. I guess it’ll be the same for other Tier 4 libraries. To tell people
in Prettygate or any other Tier 4 areas to walk up to 2 miles elsewhere is to
miss the essential nature of the library as a community hub.
Furthermore, note the emergence
of new roles for libraries in relation to the introduction of Universal Credit
and the closure of Council offices (for example Angel Court in Colchester town
centre). Libraries are becoming focal points where people can access Council
services or a computer to handle their Universal Credit claim. In that light, the
plans to close libraries is ignoring this new and important role.
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