Great Dawley Town Council agrees in principle to save town’s library
Great Dawley Town Council has agreed in principle to save the town’s library, which is one of a number threatened with closure in Telford & Wrekin Council’s £30m budget cuts.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council is poised to strike a deal with Hadley Learning Community to save Hadley Library.
Now Great Dawley is poised to follow suit although the details of the proposed deal are still being discussed with Telford & Wrekin Council.
Councillor Lee Carter, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for Finance and Service Delivery, said: “While this is not yet finalised, I would like to congratulate Great Dawley Town Council on their positive approach to working in partnership with us to protect services.
“Following on the back of similar excellent news from Hadley, this really does demonstrate a fantastic response from our community at what is a very testing time.
“We are continuing discussions with parish and town councils in other parts of the borough in the next couple of weeks to see what else is possible.
“We would obviously prefer not to be in a position where we have to cut or close anything but the government has left us with little choice because of the cut to our grant.”
Councillor Liz Clare, Telford & Wrekin Council’s cabinet member for Libraries, said: “We know there is still a lot of work to do to finalise deals with both Hadley & Leegomery Parish Council and Great Dawley Town Council but it is fantastic to have these in principle commitments.
“We know that libraries are an extremely valued community resource and we will do everything we can to ensure they all remain open in some form but our financial position is such that we do need the community to help us out.”
