Writers Stephen Fry and Michael Rosen have endorsed a new campaign to save mobile library services in Devon as they face potential closure after a council vote.
Fry said that the prospect of “such a vital, beautiful, simple” service being “denied to future generations” was heartbreaking, while Rosen said that “taking books away from people” was “cruel”.
Earlier this month, the Conservative-majority county council voted to shutter its mobile libraries due to services no longer being “cost-effective”. Three of its four library vans are nearing the end of their “serviceable lives”, and data suggests that book loans from the service fell by 68% over the last decade.
Yet Liberal Democrat councillors said that statistics used by the council were flawed because they compare 2022 figures to 2012, when there were double the number of library vehicles in operation. They added that the Covid-19 pandemic and vehicle maintenance problems affected reported user numbers in 2022.
More than 2,500 people have signed an online petition to keep the services running, which was set up by Liberal Democrat councillors Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin and Chris Wheatley.
“Mobile libraries are lifelines for rural communities,” said Fry in his statement supporting the campaign. “I know. I grew up in the remote Norfolk countryside. The arrival every other Thursday of our mobile library quite literally changed my life.”
Several councillors opposed the plans, and the Liberal Democrats have “called in” the vote, meaning a decision will now not be taken until October.
Rosen, who said he supported the campaign “100%”, told Radio Devon on Monday morning that depriving people of the “many, many things that we get from books” is “an act of cruelty at the end of the day”.
“I think it comes down to equality,” Cottle-Hunkin said. “Everyone should have equal access to books, and through the act of taking away the mobile library service, people in rural areas are effectively being made second-class citizens.”
A report has estimated that the ageing library vehicles would cost up to £800,000 to replace. The council agreed to spend £25,000 for “transition support” to help current users access alternative services.
Conservative councillor Roger Croad said that the money would help support existing services and community libraries. “People can get together rather than wait on a wet street corner waiting for a lumbering van to come round the corner once every three weeks,” he added.
The fleet currently visits 374 locations across Devon every month. The petition page states that older people and those with mobility problems rely on the roving services, and that these groups are least likely to have internet access to purchase or download books.
