Sir – Philip Pullman once wrote you cannot quantify in financial terms the benefits that result from education, literature and the arts. It would be a barbaric and irreversible gesture to close our local libraries.

How much will the council save by closing the library? A few librarians’ salaries? Heating and lighting? Can we not investigate other ways of financially keeping them open. A coffee bar etc?

Is the council going to sell our parks and open spaces next just to save money? Close Oxford Playhouse? The swimming pools?

As far as Keith Mitchell’s Big Society idea for running the libraries, I do not want to make our professional librarians redundant thank you, to create even more unemployed.

Let the Big Society run charity shops, amateur theatres and churches, but not our professional council services.

I do know about the financial restraints and the difficult choices that have to be made but to close libraries is a philistine gesture and should never be contemplated on any political watch. I am told there is going to be a public consultation, which having experienced past consultations I do not have any faith in whatever! Let not our libraries go dark, as they provide beacons of light to so many people.

Anthony Godel, Oxford