The people of Ottery St Mary recently gathered together to show their support for Ottery’s library. Devon County Council is proposing cutting the opening hours to just 13 hours a week and closing the library entirely on Mondays and Fridays; the library’s busiest days. The library is so much more than a place to borrow books.It is the town’s community hub. It runs 35 different activities for adults and children ranging from baby weighing to a meditation group.
Children would lose Bounce & Rhyme, Lego Club, Coding and Craft Clubs, school visits, reading support, work experience, Oakley the Reading dog and study support amongst many more activities.
Adults would lose book groups, literature courses, Craft and a Cuppa, meditation group, French conversation cafe, local history and cultural events. There’s also free Wi-Fi and computers, printing and photocopying, and a warm space for everyone with newspapers and free tea and coffee.
Everyone would lose the only public toilets in town.
It is suggested residents can use another library when Ottery is closed. There is no local train service, the buses are unreliable and for many residents, travelling elsewhere is simply not an option.
Two slogans to be seen during last week’s protest included ‘The library isn’t a luxury, it’s a lifeline’ and ‘Cutting libraries during a recession is like cutting hospitals during a plague’.
