LIBRARIES are undeniably one of the most treasured remaining public facilities, and North Yorkshire County Council’s moves to off-load them has sparked an outcry.

Such has been the determination of residents that hundreds of volunteers have stepped forward, after being told their duties would include tasks such as assisting library users, helping maintain the book stock and mounting displays.

Nowhere was it mentioned the volunteers would be burdened with the stressful task of raising significant amounts of money annually to keep the libraries afloat.

When it emerged the community-run ventures would face having to pay a business rates levy, albeit with an 80 per cent discount, six of the seven North Yorkshire district authorities were quick to step forward and pledge they would shoulder the cost, saying the libraries were a key public asset.

A relatively small sum for a local authority, but a large amount for a newly-formed group of volunteers. Some of the community-run ventures say paying sums up to £4,000 would be crippling and could doom them before they start in April.

It is somewhat startling then, that Hambleton District Council – an authority with £17m of reserves and which is funding an initiative to boost the very market towns where the libraries are a key asset – stands alone in insisting the volunteers must come up with the full sum. This adds insult to injury.

Councillor Robson’s argument that the county council has had a hand in the issue is fair. But saying making the libraries a special case would open the floodgates to requests for 100 per cent tax relief from all the other charities in the district appears flawed. Charity shops are not public assets.

The district council is now facing the outcry.