New Mill Library to close

Jun 17 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Holme Valley Parish Council member Tom Dixon said: “I have been using the library since I was five years old and now I hold surgeries there. It’s a service that the public needs.”

Jason McCartney, Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Colne Valley also spoke against the closure.

The Holmbridge man said: “It was my local library when I lived in Jackson Bridge in the 1990s and I believe there are plenty of reasons to keep this library open. I’m concerned how people are going to access to broadband during this time of recession.

“What broadband facilities would there be in a mobile library?”

Clr Donald Firth, who lives in New Mill, also criticised the mobile library plan. The Holme Valley South Conservative said: “New Mill Library is a busy place in the 17 hours a week it’s open and a mobile library wouldn’t do one tenth of what that library does.”

The Labour / Lib Dem Cabinet unanimously supported closing the library.

But speaking after the meeting, Clr Firth promised to keep fighting.

He said: “I think the decision is totally wrong. The people of New Mill seem to be the last thing this lot care about.

“We will have a council of war and decide on our next move. We’re certainly not giving up, we’ll fight this to the end.”