THE Save Swindon’s Libraries campaign is calling on library users across the town to turn out for a public meeting next Tuesday to make their voices heard.

The event, which will be held from 7pm to 9pm at St Joseph’s College on Ocotal Way, forms a key part of the ongoing consultation into the council’s library strategy.

It is the only opportunity for councillors to hear the views of the public in an open forum setting as all the other events are in the form of drop-in sessions.

The strategy, which is currently undergoing a formal public consultation, could see the closure of all but four of the town’s 15 libraries by next April unless community groups can take them over.

The four to be saved are the Central Library, which will continue with the same opening hours, as well as West Swindon, North Swindon and Highworth, all of which will see significant reductions in opening times.

The council has made a one-off pot of £500,000 available to assist with community takeover efforts but campaigners argue that the ongoing running costs of some of the larger libraries make them an unrealistic proposition for volunteer groups.

One such site is Park Library in Cavendish Square.

It was a surprise omission from the strategy as it meant that the east and south of Swindon, including a number of lower income areas, would be left without a library.

Now the Parks and East Walcot Community Forum has launched a campaign to pressure the council to amend the strategy.

Petitions are out for signature in businesses on Cavendish Square and surrounding areas for the remainder of the month.

The petition proposes an amendment to the council’s strategy which, if adopted, would see Park Library added to the other four libraries as part of the ‘core provision’ moving forward.

Forum secretary, Martin Wicks, said: “The council knows that the area is one with high levels of social deprivation.

“They want us to run a 'voluntary library' but there is no way that you can maintain a genuine library without professional staff and book renewal.

“Park Library is well used with more than 61,000 visits and more than 12,000 network hours on the computers. Its closure would leave a real gap.

“Whilst there is no way that they will abandon their overall plan, they could at least add Park to the list of core service so the gap in the east and south was filled.”

Sarah Church, who chairs the Save Swindon’s Libraries campaign, said: “The annual cost of running Park Library on its current hours is just under £90,000 and this figure is an enormous target for community groups in the area to reach.

“The proposal that a local group or a newly-formed parish council could take this on for the Parks is very unrealistic.”