Libraries are an easy target in a town that’s culture-free

From: PJ Gray, Shelley Grove, Sprotborough, Doncaster.

I DEPLORE the proposed closure of some 14 local branch libraries in Doncaster, though from the recent report (Yorkshire Post, February 19) I see that a stay of execution has been grudgingly granted.

As a retired schoolmaster and confirmed bibliophile, I find it quite the expected route that Doncaster Council has chosen to regard libraries as an optional extra and even to contemplate their abandonment.

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As many educated, middle class denizens of Doncaster would agree, the town unfortunately has something of a reputation as a culture-free zone and to cease to finance such centres of learning, culture and self-advancement is simply a despicable act, only to be contemplated by the chronically unenlightened. But then ... libraries are such an easy target, aren’t they? There are many areas where cuts could and should be implemented; for years councils have been gathering to themselves responsibilities which they are patently unable to discharge adequately. Local councils are a byword for waste, gobbledegook rules and overmanning.

In the world of business most councils would be unviable.

It is only the deep pockets of that poor sap, the council taxpayer, who keep them afloat.

To be even contemplating this assault on culture (I apologise for daring to use such an obscene term) and possibly considering city status (again) is purely risible.

Mayor Peter Davies should earn his salary, use his powers of persuasion on the dullard councillors and make sure that Doncaster can hold on to at least some of its tattered dignity.

From; Arthur Quarmby, Holme, Holmfirth.

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IT is all too easy for councils to frustrate all Ministerial attempts to cut bureaucracy. “Savage cuts in council funding” headlines are followed, occasionally, by a few token job losses (hugely exaggerated) and then the axe really falls – on the most vulnerable in Society.

One can only hope that the forthcoming Localism Bill will have sufficient teeth to allow the public some influence in this.

From: John Watson, Hutton Hill, Leyburn.

I HAVE just learned that I am going to lose my library and the next nearest one is also to close.

Why are all our countryside amenities disappearing?

We are losing Post Offices, bus services and pubs. The National Parks are having to endure budget cuts and pressures on hill farmers are growing by the day. What is all that going to do to the Dales?

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I go to the local library most weeks and I meet elderly people changing books. I think most of them will not want to travel to Richmond or Catterick for the same service. Why can’t more cuts be made in municipal libraries instead of depriving the little hamlets, villages, and lonely farms of one of their treasured facilities?

David Cameron should remember that most of his support comes from the rural communities. I shall be very cross if these cuts go ahead.