HUNDREDS of library users in Wharton have been celebrating this week after it was confirmed that the district's branch library will not be closing.

Wharton was one of several libraries across the county threatened with closure as part of a Cheshire County Council cost-cutting package.

But in a dramatic U-turn, the council has now backed down on its threat and decided that no branch libraries are to close.

The council admitted that people power had won the day, with letters and petitions having flooded into County Hall urging the authority to keep its libraries open.

The decision to save the libraries from closure was taken by the council's majority Labour and Liberal Democrat parties and should be rubber-stamped at the authority's budget meeting on February 19.

Cty Clr Larry Toale, chairman of the county council's community development committee, said that the public response to the threatened library closures had been "overwhelming."

He said: "County librarian Ian Dunn and myself have received well over 400 letters, many of them from young children and pensioners, and petitions containing over 7,000 signatures.

"It was a reaction that we could not possibly ignore.

"I would urge everyone who took part in the campaign to keep their local libraries open, to use that library as frequently as possible to help protect its future."

The proposals to close libraries were originally drawn up because local government reorganisation has left Cheshire with a £16 million budget shortfall for the coming year.

And although the libraries have now been saved, service cuts will now have to be made elsewhere.

Cty Clr John Talbot, the Lib-Dem spokesman on finance and community development, said: "Given the difficult financial circumstances, over which we have no control, there are no easy choices.

"And while it is right to save the libraries, this decision means there will unfortunately have to be cuts made in other services.

"As yet we are not in a position to say where those cuts will be."

But Cty Clr Paul Findlow, leader of the council's Conservative group, said he fears that some of the county's museums may now be in line for closure.

He said: "After being forced by public opinion to change their minds on the libraries, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have now turned to their next target, which is the museums service.

"The Conservative group has put forward a variety of alternative savings in line with its policy of protecting front-line services.

"But Labour and the Liberal Democrats have now torn up their policies and have begun cutting front-line services."

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