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Save Kingsclere library campaign gathers speed





Located at Kingsclere Village Club, in George Street, the library, which is open two afternoons each week and all day Saturday, is facing the axe, owing to budget cuts by Hampshire County Council, which says that it is underused.
Last year the total cost of running the library was £23,500 and there were an average of 650 visits each month.
After collecting pupils from Kingsclere Primary school last Thursday afternoon, mothers and childminders headed to the library to join some of the people invited on social media sites to support the Save Our Library campaign, which was started by Kingsclere villagers Amanda Bates and Rachelle Slann, who between them, have been using Kingsclere library for some 22 years.
Mrs Bates said: “We want to keep the library open for the children’s sakes. They like pop-up books and the tactile nature of these, everything else is on a screen these days.”
She said that the nearest other libraries were seven miles in any direction.
Kerry Philip, aged 40, said that she had been using Kingsclere library all her life:
“My mum used to bring me here and I bring my children here – my seven-year-old daughter Holly and my five-year-old autistic son, Ewan, who I’ve been bringing since he was one-and-a-half.
Because of his autism, it’s something of a social thing for him. We come every Tuesday, it’s always packed after school on Tuesday and Thursday and the children love the summer reading project.”
Madeline Hudson, aged seven, a pupil at Kingsclere Primary School, said she would be really upset if the facility was lost.
“I love reading books I can have in my hand, rather than on a screen, and I like thick books.”
Childminder Terri Hudson said that she often took up to eight children at a time to the library. “They all know [library assistant] Rowena and think she’s fab.”
Katherine Best, aged 16, a pupil of The Clere School, Burghclere, said that she had used the library since she was six.
“It’s useful for schoolwork. At the moment we are doing the rise of Hitler and I have borrowed a book about the Third Reich,” she said, adding that her brother, Michael, aged 11, (pictured) had visited the library since he was a baby.
Mother-of-two Sophie Read said she was “gutted” that the library might close and feared that her baby Lucy, aged six months, (pictured) would not be able to borrow books as she grew up.


Library assistant Rowena Hensman, of Tadley, said she would be very sad to leave after 20 years in the job.


KINGSCLERE Parish Council has called a meeting in the village on Wednesday, March 12 to discuss the proposed closure of Kingsclere library.
The meeting will be chaired by Kingsclere Parish Council chairman Alan Denness, and the proposals will be outlined by the head of library operations for Hampshire County Council, Alec Kennedy.
The county council, which has called for volunteers to take over the running of the library, is consulting on the proposals until May 2 and council officers will also be at Kingsclere library to discuss the proposals on Tuesday (February 25), from 2pm to 4pm.
Consultation forms are available in the library and online at www.hants.gov.uk/library.
Any group or organisation interested in running the library should contact Alec Kennedy by email to alec.kennedy@hants. gov.uk before May 2.
The March 12 meeting starts at 7pm at Kingsclere Village Club, George Street. All welcome.



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