100 signatures reached
To: Hampshire County Council
Save Hampshire Libraries
Reverse the planned £1.76m cut from Hampshire's libraries budget.
Reject both options presented in the public consultation – to close 14 libraries or to seriously reduce opening hours.
Keep all Hampshire's libraries open, at current hours, and with trained library staff. Volunteer libraries, this plan indicates, are a step towards final closure.
Hampshire County Council's libraries consultation is here.
https://www.hants.gov.uk/library-consultation?fbclid=IwAR0cAQ8G21HQdiTvG-gJu5VA57-e3qF27F9WxS6dReAE8LKzL2y2oCovCOU
We urge supporters to use Question 28 to reject both options on offer, and insist that library funding is not cut at all.
(It is up to the Council to make budget choices, so please don't be put off by their demands to know how you would make alternative savings.)
Why is this important?
Libraries are are havens, refuges and gateways, the vibrant hearts of the towns and villages they serve. They are engines of social mobility and social cohesion, places where knowledge and opportunity are available to all, for free .
A library is also a rare space where a community comes together, from toddlers enjoying rhyme time to older visitors finding a place to browse and meet friends – and of course people simply wanting to borrow a good book,.
Now that 1 in 8 schools do not have a library at all, public libraries are all the more vital. An open library is proof that we value knowledge and opportunity, as well as community and culture.
How it will be delivered
At the March to SaveHampshireLibraries on Saturday March 7th. Times and details tba.
