HUNDREDS of residents joined two protests outside libraries in the borough on Saturday as part of a national day to save them.

Separate demonstrations were held in East Finchley and Edgware as part of the Save our Libraries day of action — a protest at plans to close around 400 of the UK's libraries.

Campaigners fear at least one facility in Barnet will close as Barnet Council tries to cut more than ten per cent from the budget to run them.

In Edgware, Barnet Unison held a street stall outside the Broadwalk Shopping Centre and dozens of shoppers signed a petition calling for all libraries to be retained.

Branch secretary John Burgess said: “It went really well and we had a lot of interest from the public. It's something that's really captured their imagination.

“People are optimistic about taking the fight to the council.”

More than 200 people joined a rally outside East Finchley library, in High Road, and were joined by children's author Anne-Marie Conway, who writes the Star Makers Club books, and poet Fleur Adcock OBE.

Campaigner Polly Napper said: “Our branch was opened in 1938, shortly after the great depression, surely that’s a lesson for today?

“What kind of society are we living in now, where individual city bankers go home with bonuses which could cover the shortfall on a council’s library budget?

“Not everyone can afford a bus fare to a central library on a regular basis and I know the East Finchley branch is vital to families, elderly, people with reduced mobility and all those who would struggle to travel further.”

Plans for the future of the library service have yet to be formally brought forward, but are expected to be signed off by the cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday, March 29.

To view the online petition, visit http://www.gopetition.com/petition/39319/sign.html.