The next time Oxfordshire County Council Leader Keith Mitchell is considering where to wield his axe, he might care to consider the extra cost of concessionary bus fares if local libraries are closed.

Many users of libraries are concessionary bus pass holders and if large numbers of them are forced to travel into the centre of Oxford or to other surviving libraries every week, an enormous amount of money will be added to the cost of this service.

Each concessionary journey is charged to the county council and can be claimed back from the Government in grant form.

Ultimately, given the Government’s determination to reduce public spending and the unlikelihood of the government grant being increased, much of this extra cost will fall on the council.

Where will be the savings of closing the libraries then?

It would be a sensible move for local protesters to reckon the number of extra concessionary journeys based on the footfall in their libraries, and to present a coordinated estimate for the county as a whole. Closing libraries could be a very expensive move.

But there is an alternative to closure.

At the local meeting in Botley, Mr Mitchell flatly refused to consider any temporary reduction of opening hours in libraries, asserting that this would lead to a general withering of the entire library service.

This surely cannot be right when the people are speaking so clearly about their desire to keep their libraries.

Mr Mitchell asserted his proposal that libraries should be run by volunteers.

The costs which would fall on these groups would be immense. It is not just a case of turning up to do a shift of stamping and filing, and holding the occasional cake sale to raise a few pounds.

So much of this plan seems so conveniently to fit general principles of modern Conservative policy to reduce the level of all public services.

If we let the libraries die, we will come out of the present economic difficulties vastly the poorer and with precious little chance of reversing the situation.

It is not just libraries; so many of those services which we take for granted in a civilized society are under threat.

I noticed on Mr Mitchell’s entry in Debrett’s that in 1998-2000 he was the Chairman of the Friends of the Community of Adderbury Library. Is not friendship a virtue best displayed in adversity?

Martin Roberts, Stone Close, Botley