Anti-cuts activists have launched a campaign to save public libraries in Kirklees.
Kirklees Council is considering plans which could see many libraries shut down or handed over to volunteers.
The run-down will begin with the council reducing the libraries’ budget from £6m to £3.9m in the next financial year.
Huddersfield, Calderdale and Bradford branch of union Unite Community has now launched a campaign to persuade the council to change its plans.
It has started a petition, and began its campaign with a stall outside Huddersfield Central Library.
Unite Community member Chris Strachan, who began the petition, said: “It’s going very well so far. The petition is against library cuts, and against the use of volunteers to replace paid library staff. We are getting a good response from the public.”
Councillors have spent months debating how to slash money from Kirklees’ libraries budget.
The long-running threat to libraries has been looming since government cuts began to impact council coffers in 2011 with volunteers sought to take over.
Projects to utilise community help at Denby Dale, Kirkheaton and Honley libraries, where volunteers support one paid member of staff to deliver frontline services, has begun.
But a year ago councillors revealed they were thinking of axing all but two libraries – Huddersfield and Dewsbury – with a loss of 100 jobs.
READ: Councillors debate threat to libraries in Kirklees
Research gathered since then has revealed some support for getting volunteers in to help run the majority of Kirklees’ 26 libraries.
Concerns remain, however, about the practicalities of integrating volunteers.
Two options have been outlined to help maintain the network of libraries in towns and villages allowing volunteers to support a professional librarian or asking volunteers to run a facility on their own.
A third option is to axe the majority of libraries and leave only the main libraries in Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Batley with a healthy level of professional staff.
