Volunteer plans for Virginia Water library under fire

Hannah Masters-Waage • Published 26 Jan 2012 13:00 0 Comments

THE HIGH court has temporarily blocked plans to change ten of Surrey's libraries to volunteer-led.

Virginia Water is among the libraries that had begun to go ahead with plans to be run by people in the community, but the Surrey Libraries Action Movement (SLAM) launched proceedings at the high court in London on January 17 calling for a judicial review into the changes.

Surrey County Council has now asked the high court to reverse the temporary order, saying that the restrictions which forbid the council from taking "any irrevocable action" towards implementing the plans are ambiguous.

David Hodge, Leader of Surrey County Council, said: "Our aim is to keep all of Surrey's 52 libraries open and help them to thrive, while elsewhere in the country libraries are closing.

"Not only have volunteers put a lot of hard work into getting to this stage, but we believe these plans offer a good future for these libraries.

"We understand some people don't agree with our efforts to help communities run their libraries, but we have received a lot of support from people that understand we are doing what is best for Surrey's libraries and the people who use them."

For an update on this story see the Villager newspaper, available on Friday, February 3 around Ascot, Sunningdale, Sunninghill, Egham, Englefield Green and Virginia Water.

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This article appeared in Villager 03 Feb 12

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