100 signatures reached
To: Somerset County Council and James Heappey MP
Save our libraries in Somerset - Save Highbridge Library
Stop closing and cutting library services in Somerset.
Save Highbridge Library and ALL our other local library services.
Keep and support our trained librarians. Fund and develop our professionally managed library services in our communities.
Communities need services. Councils should provide those services.
Save Highbridge Library and ALL our other local library services.
Keep and support our trained librarians. Fund and develop our professionally managed library services in our communities.
Communities need services. Councils should provide those services.
Why is this important?
We don't just use libraries to borrow books - we use them for reading, we use them for researching, we use them for the Internet services they provide and we need libraries to foster our learning.
Older people need libraries, adults and young adults need libraries - and families need libraries. ... and this means libraries with trained librarians, not just volunteers.
In spite of much deprivation and poor Internet access, Highbridge and many other similar communities are now growing - new houses being built and new young families moving into the area - this town needs a hub for its local services. What better place than the library?
The current library opening hours provide only restricted access to library services - the town is expanding - this service needs expanding.
The County Council has kept open the Highbridge Children's Centre and should be using the same arguments for investing in the Library. The Highbridge library is a valuable information hub - not only for the residents of Highbridge itself, but all those many, otherwise isolated, users in the outlying areas, some of which may only have mobile library access now, e.g. Mark, Walrow, Isleport, Bason Bridge & Watchfield.
These are users who can get to Highbridge Library using the existing (yet slender) public transport links. Burnham on Sea Library is just one further step away.
For a young parent with little children in Highbridge, it has been calculated that it costs £9.00 to get public transport to Burnham and back - but you can walk to the Highbridge Library!
"Google Can Bring You Back 100,000 Answers. A Librarian Can Bring You Back the Right One." Neil Gaiman
"Cutting libraries in a time of recession and austerity is like cutting hospitals during a plague."
(adapted from Eleanor Crumblehulme library assistant)
Older people need libraries, adults and young adults need libraries - and families need libraries. ... and this means libraries with trained librarians, not just volunteers.
In spite of much deprivation and poor Internet access, Highbridge and many other similar communities are now growing - new houses being built and new young families moving into the area - this town needs a hub for its local services. What better place than the library?
The current library opening hours provide only restricted access to library services - the town is expanding - this service needs expanding.
The County Council has kept open the Highbridge Children's Centre and should be using the same arguments for investing in the Library. The Highbridge library is a valuable information hub - not only for the residents of Highbridge itself, but all those many, otherwise isolated, users in the outlying areas, some of which may only have mobile library access now, e.g. Mark, Walrow, Isleport, Bason Bridge & Watchfield.
These are users who can get to Highbridge Library using the existing (yet slender) public transport links. Burnham on Sea Library is just one further step away.
For a young parent with little children in Highbridge, it has been calculated that it costs £9.00 to get public transport to Burnham and back - but you can walk to the Highbridge Library!
"Google Can Bring You Back 100,000 Answers. A Librarian Can Bring You Back the Right One." Neil Gaiman
"Cutting libraries in a time of recession and austerity is like cutting hospitals during a plague."
(adapted from Eleanor Crumblehulme library assistant)
How it will be delivered
We shall email the signatures, deliver the petition in person and plan to stage a press conference nearer the end of the consultation period. (Consultation ends 22nd April 2018)
