Stephen Fry joins campaign to save mobile libraries

Stephen Fry said mobile libraries changed his life when he was growing up

Stephen Fry and children's author Michael Rosen have joined a campaign to save Devon’s mobile libraries.

Fry called mobile library services "lifelines for rural communities", in a statement.

He said they changed his life when he was a child growing up in rural Norfolk.

Devon County Council’s ruling Conservative cabinet voted to close the service earlier this month.

User numbers for the mobile service are down and three of its four library vans are coming to the end of their "serviceable lives", councillors heard.

Several opposition councillors criticised the plans, urging the cabinet to delay a decision.

The Liberal Democrats ‘called-in’ the move for further examination in September, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

A campaign to save the libraries, set up by Torridge Lib Dem Councillor Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, has since received over 2,000 signatures and has now been backed by authors Stephen Fry and Michael Rosen.

In a statement sent to Ms Cottle-Hunkin, Fry said: "Mobile libraries are lifelines for rural communities.

"I know. I grew up in the remote Norfolk countryside.

"The arrival every other Thursday of our mobile library quite literally changed my life.

"The idea that such a vital, beautiful, simple service should be denied to future generations is heart-breaking."

Replacing vehicles would cost molre than £600,000 the council has been told

Ms Cottle-Hunkin said: "Our rural communities are being left behind and the Tories are not listening.

"Why was no reserve funding set aside to replace the library vehicles when they reached the end of their useful life?

"This smacks of poor financial management."

Explaining why the service would close at the end of the year, Devon’s cabinet member for communities, Conservative councillor Roger Croad, admitted earlier this month it was a “sad day” but “inevitable,” explaining that it would cost between £600,000 and £800,000 to replace the three vehicles.

However, the ‘call-in’ by the opposition Lib Dems means no decision will now be taken until October.

Before then, the council’s scrutiny committee, when it meets in September, will consider the plans in further detail and could call on the council’s leadership to change its mind.