THE founder of a group that promotes the use of Bridgnorth Library has called on more people to use it to guarantee its future.
County Councillor John Hurst-Knight, who started the Friends of Bridgnorth Library, said they wanted to hear suggestions from the public on how services might be improved. He said the Friends were calling a meeting at the library on Monday, April 18 (2pm) to which everyone was welcome.
His appeal comes in the wake of a major revamp of the county’s mobile library services, which involves a number of changes to times and routes in the Bridgnorth area, including discontinuing stops within two miles of the town.
“We have set up a team of volunteers to deliver to housebound readers so that they do not miss out,” said Rawden Parslow, principal librarian for South Shropshire.
Stops in some villages have been reduced, but where this is happening those still being used will see the van stopping for a longer time.
The changes have included discontinuing a number of stops in Bridgnorth, cutting out two of the four stops at Alveley and changing the service day from Saturday to
Monday, and retaining just two stops at Claverley where the visits will be on Wednesdays instead of Saturdays.
Shropshire Council confirmed that the revamp started this week, following a recent extensive review of the library service to ensure it is ‘fit for the future’.
Almost 900 responses were received as part of the review, set by the council’s mobile task and finish group.
The council says that by continuing to visit communities fortnightly and changing those who were visited weekly to fortnightly, the service has been revamped to better meet people’s changing demands and preferences.
“For many people living in our rural communities, mobile libraries provide the only means of gaining regular access to the library and information service,” said Councillor Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for culture and leisure.
“We understand this and we ensured people’s views were taken into consideration as part of the review. We hope that by making these changes we can continue to deliver an excellent, sustainable service that people want and need.”
The Bridgnorth mobile library van is also being used in a small part of the Shrewsbury area.