Self-funded community library calls for volunteers

Sophie Grayson regularly takes her two children Daisy and Harley to rhyme time at the library

The first library to be taken over by the local community after a council went bankrupt has called for more volunteers to help run it.

Roade Junction Community Group took over running the library - which is self-funded- in High Street Roade, from Northamptonshire County Council in 2019.

It was one of 21 libraries threatened with closure by the struggling authority in 2018.

Roger Wood, Chair of the Roade Junction Community Group said: “We’re totally reliant on our volunteers."

Roger Wood, chair of Roade Junction Community Group, said it's run more as a village community hub

Mr Wood added: "Without our volunteers it just wouldn’t exist.

"You can have the funds but unless you’ve got the people to staff the library you are nowhere really."

The library is open Wednesday to Saturday and there are two volunteers at every session.

Volunteer Jane Austin said the weekly singing session is good for young children's development

Jane Austin is a volunteer and runs rhyme time at the library every Wednesday.

She has been volunteering there since the community group took over five years ago and said: “It’s great to be able to keep the library going.

"It’s nice to learn new skills, the best thing is meeting the public and helping them to enjoy the library and seeing the children is the best bit really."

She said it was run more as a village hub than just a library with film nights and music nights.

Sophie Grayson takes her two children to library events.

She said: "It’s incredibly important, especially when you’re out in the sticks, out in the villages, and there’s not a lot else around - it’s a real community hub."