Library clears its shelves in protest at closure threat

Users urged to take out full allowance of library books in campaign to keep Stony Stratford branch open


* Maev Kennedy
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 January 2011 17.47 GMT

The library at Stony Stratford, a town on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, looks like the aftermath of a crime, the shell-shocked staff presiding over an expanse of emptied shelves.

Only a few days ago the shelves held 16,000 volumes. Now, after a campaign organised on Facebook to save the library, there is none. Every library user was urged select their full entitlement – 15 books – take them away and keep them for a week.

The intention was to empty the shelves by closing time on Saturday: in fact with 24 hours to go, the last sad bundle of self-help and practical mechanics books was stamped out and the library was empty. Robert Gifford, chair of Stony Stratford town council, who was planning to collect his books when he got home from work in London, has left it too late.

The empty shelves, the library users want to demonstrate, represent the gaping void at the heart of their community if Milton Keynes council gets its way and closes the library.

Stony Stratford, an ancient Buckinghamshire market town famous only for its claim that the two pubs, the Cock and the Bull, are the origin of the phrase "a cock and bull story", was one of the hamlets and villages which became part of the council area of the new town of Milton Keynes. The council is now faced with budget cuts of £25m and is consulting on closing at least two of its 10 outlying branch libraries.

Stony Stratford town council got wind of the plan in December and wrote to all 6,000 residents warning them – not entirely disinterestedly, as the council meets in the library, like many other groups in the town. "In theory the closure is only out for consultation," Gifford said, "but we feel the axe hovering over it. If we sit back and wait till the decision is made, it will be too late."

"This is a surprisingly diverse place. We have some quite well-off people, some retireds, lots of young families, people working in London like me and areas of considerable deprivation. One man stopped me in the street and said, 'The library is the one place where you find five-year-olds and 90-year-olds together and it's where young people learn to be proper citizens'. It's crazy even to consider closing it – they should be finding ways to expand its services and bring even more people in."

Emily Malleson, a member of the Friends of Stony Stratford Library, said: "I was lucky, I got in early so I got some nice children's books – and my children came along and took out all their books too. I had to bring the car to get them all home.The late-comers just had to take whatever was left."

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