Campaigner Mary Kasanicki hands Save Cambridgeshire Libraries petition to county councillor David Harty

A Save Cambridgeshire Libraries petition, signed by more than 7,000 people, has been handed over to Cambridgeshire County Council by campaigners.

Leader of the Labour group at Shire Hall, Cllr Tariq Sadiq, said: “We are hoping the petition will change the cabinet’s mind about the future of its libraries. We want to show the strength of feeling about libraries among the community.”

The save our libraries campaign was launched after the council announced it needed to trim £3.2 million from the libraries budget over a five-year-period.

Of the 25 libraries in the county, 13 are currently under review including Milton Road and Rock Road, although the authority has said there are no plans to close any.

Plans to save money from the libraries budget include redesigning the library service, appointing an external trust to manage the service, using volunteers to run them and creating community hubs.

Cllr David Harty, cabinet 
member for learning, who received the petition, said: “Quite a lot of people have 
taken the trouble to sign the petition and we will definitely take note of that when making any decisions.”