CAMPAIGNERS are setting up a stall in Edgware tomorrow morning to raise awareness of a potential threat to local libraries as part of a national day of action.
Members of Barnet UNISON are setting up the street stall outside the Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Station Road to garner signatures for the Save Our Libraries campaign.
Barnet Council are set to bring forward plans to revamp the library service in the next six weeks, but need to save £1m from the budget they have already set out.
This has led to fears some will be axed while Councillor Robert Rams, who is in charge of libraries, has suggested books could be ordered online and picked up from hubs like coffee shops or supermarkets.
Nationally the day of action has been organised by author Alan Gibbons, who won the Blue Peter Book Award in 2000.
He said: “Barnet's Councillors are posing as latter-day Marie Antoinettes. They want to 'save money' by closing libraries.
“Illiteracy is not something we should bequeath our children. Culture and reading are not a frippery. They are an essential element in a democratic society.”
The stall will run from 10.30am-midday and there is an online petition at http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39319/sign.html.
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