HERE is part of an e-mail we have sent to Debbie Wilcox regarding her proposed closing of Stow Hill library. Regarding the proposed imminent closure of Stow Hill library, we would like to bring to your attention the following points:

1. It is within your power to cancel or delay the closure, despite what was said in the Argus (20.03.2013). 2. It is the council’s duty to provide library facilities which should be in the heart of the community. This from the council’s own policy. Closure removes the library from the heart of a much larger community than just the immediate Stow Hill area. 3. Now is a very bad time to close Stow Hill library. Major disruption of the main library is likely to mean more difficult access for residents of Newport who live between the town centre and the Bassaleg and Rogerstone areas. 4. Before this ill-advised short-term attempt at a solution to a long-term problem is implemented, have all other less harmful possibilities been explored? For example: alter the opening hours to bring them down to match the hours in the other branch libraries? Reduce the hours in the other libraries to share the burden? Close all the libraries for an extra day a week?

Leave the libraries alone and use your Cabinet position to ensure that the one remaining cultural contact in the area continues to provide a resource for the multi-ethnic all-age-group population.

Greg and Angela Platt, Bolton Rd, Newport