Council calls meeting over Spilsby library plans

Councillors in Spilsby are seeking public views on a possible way forward to retain the town’s static library service.

A public meeting will be held next Wednesday, September 18 at Franklin Hall at 7.30pm to discuss the situation and let the public give their opinion on what should happen.

“We need to let the public give their opinion and now see if there is enough people to run the library,” said Mayor of Spilsby Coun Peter Grant.

At the end of last month, Spilsby town councillors gave their tentative support to the Lincolnshire Co-operative being the new base for the library.

Mayor Grant said that all the councillors ‘were quite impressed’ with the proposed room the store has for the library and were encouraged by what they saw.

He said that the Co-op are ‘on board’ with the idea and so are the council but the public are being given the chance to air their views next week.

But Mayor Grant had warned the only issue had been the money offered by Lincolnshire County Council to set it up.

The Co-op’s offer to host the town’s library was made after the county council announced plans to close it as part of cost cutting measures.

As reported, following the success of a volunteer-run scheme in Waddington’s Co-op pharmacy, the company offered similar options to five other towns, including Spilsby.

“We have to gauge the public interest in running it, the alternative would be a library service van that visits on a two weekly system,” added Mayor Grant.

Mayor Grant warned that this would be a worse outcome as it would have a negative impact on job seekers using the computers at the library to search for vacancies as they may have none at home.

“It has that facility, it isn’t just about the footfall or lending, it has so many more uses,” added Mayor Grant.

He said schools used it weekly for events, and other people enjoy different aspects of the library.

“We’ve had issues before and now we are in this unique position as we could loose it but we need to keep discussing this and find the way forward,” Mayor Grant explained.

“We need to gauge opinion and view how we are going to be running it and in time pay for it,” he said.