IN a way I admire MP David Mowat.

He is certainly his own man and doesn’t seem swayed by public opinion.

My reason for saying this is his support for LiveWire’s plans to close libraries across Warrington.

He could have just been populist and gone along with the 7,000 or so angry residents who have signed a petition condemning the plans.

Instead he has given a ‘considered’ response, pointing out how clever LiveWire has been.

He is, of course, entitled to his views. But I do wish he had formed his opinion based on facts rather than his misconceptions of what is really going to happen.

I believe Mr Mowat is a reasonable man and I would plead with him to take another look at the reality.

I base my response to him on both his public statement in the Warrington Guardian and on the letter he sent to me.

1) The central library is not ‘moving’ to Golden Square. It is being closed.

What we will then have is a ‘small library offer’ in a former shoe shop which will also contain a meeting area, box office, merchandise shop and space for film screenings etc.

Not much room for a library there.

2) The libraries scheduled for closure will not be ‘moved to bigger hubs’. Look at the artist’s impression of the Sankey hub. The ‘library’ will be four or five shelves.

There is no plan for a library of any description at Broomfields (we may get a book locker if we’re lucky).

The only library of any size left in the town will be the rather meagre offering at Orford Jubilee hub.

3) To quote Mr Mowat: “I am delighted LiveWire has eschewed the ‘salami-slice’ approach of cutting outreach services, cutting hours and reducing investment in stock in favour of a genuine conversation about how library services should be delivered.

Oh dear Mr Mowat, how wrong can you be?

That is exactly what LiveWire has been doing since it took over. It has cut hours, cut books and thereby made their libraries much less relevant to its users. Of course people are using Amazon. They have to because LiveWire isn’t buying the books people want to read.

You can also add to that the need to generate even more savings to fund the vanity projects of the so-called Bewsey-Dallam hub and the Great Sankey hub.

By the way, who in their right minds would sanction such major capital projects as these when everyone at Warrington Borough Council knew massive funding cuts were on the way? Where was the scrutiny?

If these plans go ahead, Warrington will not have what you or I would recognise as a library.

That’s not progress, that’s not futureproofing, that’s a step back to the Dark Ages.

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