VILLAGERS from West Moors took their fight to keep their library open to the top - presenting a case to Dorset County Council’s full council meeting last Thursday.

More than 2,000 people have signed a petition urging councillors to remove the library, in Station Road, from the list of 20 community libraries which could be shut next year.

They argue a large bequest left by former |resident Daphne Harrison in 1994 means the county council would have to repay around £64,000, as laid out in a 15-year agreement.

Cllr Peter Holden, chairman of West Moors Parish Council and cllr Alex Clarke of the village’s library working party, put their case to the meeting before a |15-minute debate.

They said if the library was to close in 2012, |repayment of the loan would outweigh any savings likely to be made by the county council for at least two years.

County councillor Peter Finney said he felt West Moors had presented a compelling case.

He added: “I completely support the case for |retaining the library in West Moors.”

Deputy leader and community services chief, cllr Hilary Cox, said: “It's not our proposal to close libraries, but to give them to the communities.”

She did say, however, that the policy development panel would look very carefully at the West Moors |situation.

Cllr Holden said: “We believe very seriously that West Moors is on the wrong list in the first instance.

“Also, through our investigations over the months, it’s clear the threatened libraries have not been given enough time or full information about the costs.

“It is difficult to forecast what we are supposed to be budgeting for.”

The council, which argues community groups could take on running any closed libraries, have given |different predicted running costs, he added.

Villagers also feel their concerns about “knock-on effects”, such as an estimated £30,000 bill from |pensioners’ additional concessionary bus pass |journeys to go to Ferndown instead, have not been answered properly. “They’ve said it is not part of the library and that, through these cuts, they’re looking purely at libraries,” cllr Holden said.

“But when you’re running an organisation you have to think about the knock-on effect within the |organisation and take it all into consideration.

“The goalposts keep changing. The way they have approached the whole thing is wrong from the |beginning.

“They need to buy themselves time or it’s going to get very messy.”

Information from a public consultation on the |proposals to save £800,000 will be considered by the council at meetings to be held on June 20, July 6 and July 21.