Ryhall protestors vow to continue fight to keep their library open

Campaigners fighting proposals to close Ryhall library have been told they'll be no decisions until April.

Ahead of the budget meeting of Rutland county council last night they protested before asking questions about the library during the meeting

A consultation on the services runs until midnight tonight.

However protestors say they'll continue the fight for as long as possible.

I don't think we had the clear and transparent answers members of the public could reasonably expect

Parish councillor Andrew Nebel was at the meeting and spoke to us.

He says: "Well it's interesting that there were 5 questions from the public and they all concerned the finances because that is the issue about the sustainability of our library."

"I don't think we had the clear and transparent answers members of the public could reasonably expect."

"We're going to keep the pressure up."

"We want to get every single councillor here - we want them to start understanding some of the detail in it. "

"Ok we're passionate about our library and we want them to understand that should stay open."

"We'll be working to keep that awareness up between now and April."

If cabinet takes the decision to spend more money on Ryhall library it has to stop spending it on something else

"We've just finished our submission to the consultation - a very detailed response - we hope that will be listened to."

"We will insist that the scrutiny committee of Rutland county council will go through that because we're challenging their figures and we're offering figures we believe are more valuable than the ones they've used."

We also spoke to Councillor for transport and communities Christine Wise.

She says: "It's very difficult to give a more accurate pinpointed answer because at the moment we genuinely don't know."

"I think I would always say that I would love to save the library."

"I have a background in libraries - information services."

"I believe passionately in the place of libraries in the community and schools."

"We have to accept that if cabinet takes the decision to spend more money on Ryhall library it has to stop spending it on something else."

"That's why the cabinet paper is a quite a long time after the consultation ends."

Meanwhile the meeting last night agreed to set a council tax rise of just under 5 per cent.

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