CAMPAIGNERS who have fought to save Swindon’s libraries from closure for the past year have given a mixed reaction to the council’s final plans.

While the decision to continue funding for Park library as part of the core strategy has been welcomed, the future uncertainty faced by the town’s remaining ten libraries and the staff working across the service are significant causes for concern.

Sarah Church, chairman of the Save Swindon’s Libraries campaign, said: “We commend the councillors and campaigners from the Parks, and residents from across Swindon, who spoke up during the consultation to make sure that the dreadful mistake of closing Park Library would not come to fruition.

“However, we would like to offer our solidarity to those staff who learned today that they will have to reapply for their jobs over the Christmas period. A large number of staff will lose their jobs: the staff are the lifeblood of the library service and the reduction in their hours will have a profound impact on how library users access services.

“This new proposal still represents a dramatic reduction in services, and is no guarantee of a comprehensive service going forward.

“Parish and community solutions will be a postcode lottery, and the council is still burdened with a huge income generation risk.

“There remain many unanswered questions for core and non-core libraries, particularly over the economic sustainability of the plan and the substantial risk to the service if adequate income is not generated.

“Save Swindon’s Libraries will continue to raise these and other questions, and to assess the impact on users of the unfunded branch libraries.

“The timeframe for community expressions of interest is very tight – a deadline of January 31 – and it is very unlikely that solutions will be found across Swindon by then.”

Campaigners are planning a day of action on Saturday to bring attention to the proposals.

A ‘read in’ event will be held at the Old Town library at 11am while over in Highworth, there will be a demo in the market square from 10am until 10.30am with a 'read in' at the library from 11.30am.

More information is available on the campaign's Facebook page.