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The Save Lincolnshire Libraries campaign, which will tomorrow (8th July) go to the High Court in a bid to stop cuts to libraries in the county, has set up a Thunderclap on the "crowdspeaking" social media platform to support the cause.
The judicial review has been brought against the county council’s plans to cut the county's library service budget by £2m, which will result in the closure of 30 out of 44 libraries libraries in the area unless volunteers can be found to run them.
The review was called for by Lincoln resident Simon Draper on the grounds that a decision was made to shut libraries in Lincolnshire before a consultation; that not enough “consideration was given to the needs of vulnerable people” who would be affected; that not enough consideration was given to a bid by Greenwich Leisure Limited to run some of the libraries; and that the future library service would not be “comprehensive and efficient” as required by the 1964 Act of Parliament.
To coincide with the judicial review, the campaign is also calling on Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, “to intervene to halt the decimation of the British public library service”.
The group has set up a Thunderclap to ask Javid to make sure the Lincolnshire libraries judicial review is the last.
Lincolnshire County Council first announced it planned to cut libraries in April 2013 and the cuts in December last year.
It was forced to put them on hold in April this year when the judicial review was approved.