Sir, – There is a lot of anger in Stokesley at the proposal that the town’s library is going to be closed by North Yorkshire County Council.

I attended a parish council meeting three weeks ago where a council officer made the case for huge reduction in library funding.

They said there would be a consultation, but the language used was couched in terms of inevitability. Has the outcome already been decided?

I was also struck by their unapologetic manner with doublespeak phrases such as "This is an opportunity for Stokesley". Their pitch never recognised the library’s importance as a centre of local learning or of having any cultural value to the town.

They diminished its present use by suggesting it is underutilised. They clearly showed little understanding of how widely it is used by many local groups or its value to the local community.

However, what really angers local people is that Stokesley owned the previous library, which was sold for a handsome sum of money and the new library was leased under terms which are very expensive. It is most unfair that the county council is arguing that the library is now uneconomic, when it is a problem of its own making. The rent and rates are now £44,000 per year, almost twice as much as comparable North Yorkshire libraries. Why did the county council give the town such a poor deal, only to argue ten years later that it is too expensive?

The Save the Library Petition, which actually argues for a hybrid model – meaning one full time trained member of staff supported by volunteers – is now getting on for a thousand signatures and local people are feeling strongly that they have been treated badly by their elected representatives and officers.

ALAN RICHARDSON

Carlton in Cleveland.