LYME REGIS: Lyme treated 'unfairly' in library cuts

At last week’s Strategy and Policy Committee meeting, councillors said it was unfair that Lyme Regis was being treated differently to Dorchester in regards to library service cuts.

The criticism came after the county council sent questionnaires to town councils throughout Dorset, asking the following two questions:

• Is your community interested in taking over the running of the building and responsibility for running costs with the opportunity of using the library for wider community use?

• Would you be interested in funding a fully managed service provided by the county council subject to charges being payable by your council?

Councillor Stan Williams said: “I think that is quite dreadful. Are they asking us to be treated differently to Dorchester? Why are we being told we should be managing it? We should all be treated the same.”

Councillor Lucy Campbell agreed with Councillor Williams’ objections.

“We should answer no and no,” she added.

Councillor Sally Holman said that they did have to be “innovative” and look for new solutions to prevent Lyme Regis Library from being closed, but agreed that the council should reply no to both questions.

Councillor Daryl Turner said: “Cuts are going to have to be made. You could also look at this as an opportunity. Do you want it to be cut or do you want to do something about it?”

Councillor Lorna Jenkin, who has been attending meetings and campaigning to save the library, raised a suggestion made by county councillor Colonel Geoffrey Brierley, that opening hours and funds for new books should be cut across all of Dorset’s libraries. This would save the £8,000 the county council need, meaning no libraries would have to close.

She added: “Even if this was only done for a year, it would a create a breathing space for looking at the whole situation.”

Councillors questioned why this option had not been included in the questionnaire, and criticised the fact that the deadline date for returned questionnaires was after the county council’s scheduled meeting in June, when they will make the final decision on library cuts.

They decided to answer no to both questions and to include Colonel Brierley’’s suggestion in their reply, which they would ensure was sent before the June meeting.