Closures will stifle social mobility
9:00am Friday 11th February 2011 in Comment
IT was good that The Bolton News showed pictures of some of the nine out of 15 branch libraries Bolton Council says it is being forced to close.
Some of the older established branches (like Bromley Cross or Astley Bridge) are in areas with high numbers of less mobile older residents, who will not find some alternative journey into town as easy. But you also show some of the five that are newly built or refurbished in areas of the borough where literacy levels are lowest and families least likely to own computers.
In an age of IT, children need to use libraries for homework, unemployed people are told by JobCentres to go there for job search, and older people are being told that most of their dealings with government must now be online.
So, Breighmet is part of a new heath centre, Castle Hill part of a new school (replacing the old one Nat Lofthouse went to), whilst the Orchards (Highfields) and Oxford Grove (Halliwell) are part of new Surestart children’s centres.
High Street Library was purpose built only three years ago at a cost of £1.2m. It is outrageous for the coalition government to let these state-of-the-art modern facilities be shut down whilst talking of improving social mobility.
Ian McHugh Gilnow Road Bolton
