Library hours plea

In a letter to the Carrick Times, children’s writer Malachy Doyle calls for a re-think over the measures, which will affect a number of branches and Libraries NI say are necessary as a result of savings requirements in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

Mr Doyle states: “ As someone who grew up in Whitehead and now makes my living as a writer for children, I feel the need to add my voice to the protests surrounding the plan to reduce the opening hours of Whitehead library from 35.5 hours to 18 hours. Whitehead library originally opened when I was seven or eight-years-old, and it changed my life. Without it, I would never have become the person I am or the writer I am.

“I think it’s desperately sad to think that the people of Whitehead, present and future, (and particularly the children) will have the status of their library so reduced and called into question. I can understand that budgets are tight, but it seems unfair to me that Whitehead is facing the most severe cut of any.”

(Read full letter in this week’s Carrick Times, on sale now)