A PUBLIC meeting is being held to discuss the potential closure of a village library.

The branch in Berinsfield, near Wallingford, is one of many village libraries under threat across the county, including those in Benson, Grove and Kennington.

The consultation meeting is being held at Berinsfield Primary School in Wimblestraw Road, at 11am next Saturday. All residents of Berinsfield and the surrounding villages who use the library are invited. County councillor Judith Heathcoat, cabinet member for safer and stronger communities, will answer questions about the proposal.

John Cotton, the Conservative district councillor for Berinsfield, urged as many people as possible to attend.

He said: “If lots of people come along to this meeting it will send out a strong message to the county council that the community doesn’t want this library to close.

“The county council has set aside a pot of about £200,000 for libraries to use, which amounts to about £10,000 for each library, and Berinsfield Library costs a lot more than that to run each year. Volunteers may be the way forward but each library needs some professional staff.”

  • The group campaigning to save Kennington library from Oxfordshire County Council budget cuts will hold a public meeting next Friday, January 14. The Friends of Kennington Library will hold the event in the village hall.