AS last week’s Journal suggested, the story on the proposed library move seems complicated: up till now I shared the view expressed in Peter Hoare’s letter last week, based on experience elsewhere, that a new build library offers real opportunities and has transformed many communities. I also thought that it could do a great deal to improve Fisherton Street.

However a glance at the planning application on line and the announcement of a “temporary” decant into the British Heart Foundation building has changed my mind. What is on offer is a rented shoebox library surrounded by a Travel Lodge, accompanied by vague reassurances from the council about the future of the art collections held in Trust for Salisbury. English Heritage says the design is poor. This simply will not do. Our present library is a hugely successful community hub in the right place, housing books and so much more. It is the heart of Salisbury. Selling it off for use in a retail model widely seen as broken is just unacceptable.

Very sadly the council has simply lost Salisbury's trust. There have been too many broken promises and worthless assurances. There are many examples: the custody suite, the post office, the youth service and not least endless promises about our "community hub" in the wrong place. We were promised facilities the community really wanted at Five Rivers but after two years of “consultations” all this disappeared overnight in favour of a lucrative let to the admin offices of the Fire Service.

I very much hope that the scale of the public reaction to this proposal will finally convince the council that Salisbury has been pushed too far. Our library is the glue that holds the community together and must not be destroyed. Please Salisbury – sign the petition and keep up the pressure.

Anne Trevett

Lower Bemerton