Fight to save library gathers pace with charity meeting (From Bucks Free Press)

Fight to save library gathers pace with charity meeting

10:58am Monday 19th June 2006 in

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MICKLEFIELD campaigners take another big step towards saving their library on Sunday when they hold an Inaugural General Meeting.

It is being held at St Peter's Church Hall, next to the library, from 2pm, with the added inducement of champagne and strawberries for £1 and a fundraising auction of goodies, including a Dr Who Annual, autographed by Colin Baker.

The meeting is being held to elect trustees to the charity the group wants to set up.

Charitable status will open doors to lots of sources of cash which the group needs to help keep the library going.

The library is one of eight in Buckinghamshire threatened with closure in October under county council savings plans.

The closures were fiercely opposed by local people, who decided they would try and run them themselves.

They now have until the end of August to present the council with workable business plans.

The Micklefield group, under chairman Dave Cannings, has raised almost £12,000, but says it needs £18,750 to keep it going for nine months and pay the salary of librarian Jean Fraser.

In September it will be bidding for money from a new Lottery source designed to support libraries in deprived communities.

People in Chalfont St Giles and Little Chalfont, whose libraries are also under threat, do not expect to be able to get money from this Lottery source, or to be able to pay for librarians. But they have plenty of volunteers lined up.

The two villages have been looking at what has been going on in Cambridgeshire where eight small village libraries have been run by volunteers for almost three years.

Tony Hoare, from Chalfont St Giles, spent Monday at one of them, Somersham. He said the library group had raised usage by 25 per cent in the last three years through marketing and the ability to stock the books people wanted.

John Greensmith, from Little Chalfont, said his group would like to adopt the Cambridgeshire model, but the problem in Bucks was that everything had to be done at no cost to the county council. His group would be looking for local business sponsorship.

Parry Hughes-Morgan, of Little Chalfont, said: "Cambridgeshire couldn't afford to run their small libraries, but they went out to them and said there is a halfway point whereby you supply volunteers and we will supply books and IT support."

If Little Chalfont got support like that, it would cost £2,000 to £3,000 a year to run the library and they would not have to worry about raising money.

But without it the money needed would be more like £20,000.

In Chalfont St Giles the parish council may buy the library building from the county council for £170,000 plus and let the library use it at no charge.

The group would buy 1,000 of the 4,000 library books from the county and then make up the rest from gifts and from publishers.

"There is absolutely no problem about getting the books," said Mr Hoare.

He said running costs for books, IT and training would be £12,000 to £13,000.