CONCERNED residents of Usk met on Monday evening (7th October) to discuss a threat from Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) to close the town's library.

Around 150 people packed into the top floor of Usk's Memorial Hall after worried library user Julie McGowan spread the word about the proposed closure.

At the meeting, a group of seven people came forward to create a committee that will lead the campaign to keep the building open.

MCC's cabinet will begin talks tomorrow (10th October) on how £9million can be saved from the council's budget over the next year due to a reduction in money granted to the county by the Welsh Assembly Government.

A recent report into areas where money can potentially be saved has been published, and will be discussed in the meeting.

The report highlights Monmouthshire's library service as a key money-saving area, and names Usk and Gilwern as sites that, if given the go ahead, will be shut within eight weeks of cabinet say-so.

The report brings forward the idea of combining one-stop shops and libraries into single buildings.

It claims the budget for the county's libraries should be cut by £180,000, but that services in towns will not be lost entirely.

"The aim is to have one access point for customer service in each of the four towns and create efficiencies through releasing building costs and potential for staff savings," it states.

The closure of Usk library will save the council £57,000. Campaigners argued at the meeting that out of Abergavenny, Chepstow, Monmouth and Caldicot, the small library is being asked to make up almost one third of the savings.

"Figures show that Usk is by far the best-used library in the county. On average, every single resident of Usk uses the library at least once a month," said Julie McGowan.

Also present at the meeting were the town's librarians.

"I only started this campaign because I went into the library on Thursday and saw these distraught ladies who had just been telephoned and told that the library might be closing," added Julie.

The group has decided to act with petitions and letters pleading with cabinet members to keep their service going.

"We've got to irritate them to death so they never want to hear of Usk again," said one passionate campaigner.

A special cabinet meeting will begin discussion into service cuts tomorrow. Following this, cabinet will again meet in a closed seminar on 12th November after the three-week pubic consultation period to discuss findings, and formal budget proposals will be put before a special cabinet on 18th December.

Town and county councillor Brian Strong was present at Monday's meeting. "I will represent the people of Usk to the best of my ability. The library is a tremendous facility," he said.

The library currently employs two full time and one part time members of staff. Librarian Linda Thomas spoke of the sites importance in the town.

"It is the heart of the community here. We run reading clubs, IT courses and supply free WiFi," she said.

"The library also runs a summer reading challenge in which 154 children took part this year, and the local nursery comes in twice a week to have story time.

"It is like a community centre for the town."

The land the library sits on is owned by local charity the Robert Edwards Educational Trust. The land is leased to MCC, and the library itself is in a demountable building owned by the council.

Trustee Tony Kear said: "The potential closure of the library would, of course, be a considerable loss to the town."