MORE than 100 residents proudly stood outside Whalley library in a bid to convince County Hall to reconsider their proposals to close a ‘valued part’ of the community.

Residents young and old were accompanied by several Ribble Valley councillors as well as Lancashire County councillors to try and save the service that was selected along with dozens of others across East Lancashire.

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In total, 54 of the authorityies' buildings in Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle, Ribble Valley, Rossendale and Chorley are set to shut their doors within the next 12 months.

At the moment the library is open Monday to Wednesday and Friday to Saturday and has a variety of services that people can use.

The closures are a result of the Government’s cuts, which are forcing County Hall to save £200 million by 2021.

There will be a 12-week consultation period with a final decision due to be made in September.

Cllr Ged Mirfin, who represents Billington and Old Langho on Ribble Valley Council, attended the protest and said the turnout was exceptional.

He said: “There were at least 100 people there which shows you the library is such a valued part of our community. There were youngsters from the beavers group in Whalley, college students, families, pensioners – everyone was there.

“It shows everyone, regardless of age, has a need for a library and we need to keep it going.

“I visited the library on Monday afternoon and there were several people coming and going and I was only there for 10 minutes.”

The county proposes bringing services together to form a network of multi-functional buildings known as neighbourhood centres, which would provide a base for a range of different services in one place.

Meanwhile many buildings would no longer be used and the number of places at which some services are available would reduce.

President of Whalley Lions and District Club, Gillian Darbyshire, said: “It would be a huge blow for the village if the library was shut down.

“It’s been a large part of the village and everyone uses it frequently.

“Whalley has suffered so much in the past 12 months and this is another setback.

“The turnout was exceptional and there were so many people there, I hope this highlights how much the library means to residents and the community.”