a CAMPAIGN to save a mobile library service which brings books to people in isolated villages in West Devon has gained momentum as a campaigner disputes figures used to justify axeing them.

Devon County Council has launched a consultation on whether to shut the entire mobile library service across the county, currently served by four vans. It says use of the service is down by 68 per cent in ten years, but these figures are contested by user Paul Sandy, who says figures were down as a result of the pandemic and also because the number of communities served has been massively reduced.

He said: ‘Withdrawal of the service will impact on many rural Devon communities but there seems to be serious shortcomings in the information provided to jusitfy the decision and in the consultation. It seems that Devon County Council are consulting on whether to keep the mobile library service or not, but on what might be done instead; are out of step with many other councils which are still buying, running and seem to value, fleets of mobile library vans; and having delibarately chosen statistics impacted by the pandemic to justify their decision and during a period when the number of mobile libraries has been halved an some data is known to be incomplete or flawed.’

The Tavistock area is served by the mobile library from Ivybridge, which visits a number of villages on different days every four weeks.Yesterday, Wednesday, it was the turn of Mary Tavy, Peter Tavy, Bridestowe, Lydford and Brentor; while every four weeks on a Tuesday, it visits Bere Alston, Bere Ferrers and Weir Quay. It visits Crapstone, Horrabridge, Dousland, Yelverton and Buckland Monachorum on a Thursday every four weeks. Meanwhile on Saturdays every four weeks, the van visits Yelverton.

Devon County Council is running a consultation on the proposal until May 26. Mr Sandy uses the service in his home village, Rewe, in the Exe Valley, where he says it is valued.

He said: ‘It is really uesful to have it. Everyone who goes there has a chat and in Rewe during the lockdowns, people used to organise a tea so you could go to the mobile library and if it was early afternoon, you could go and have a chat over a cup of tea and piece of cake as well.

‘If it goes, it will certainly be a loss to those who use it at the moment. A lot of them like me are old and especially in West Devon, may live in places where there isn’t a bus service can use to come into Tavistock Library. It strikes me that the mobile libraries are an early example of levelling up, where there is an imbalance between urban and rural areas.’ A spokesman for Devon County Council said no decisions will be made until they council had fully considered all the responses they received.

The county council says that the mobile service ‘had become very expensive to run’ and that it wanted to encourage people to extend the Home Library Service, to develop the home library services, both deliving books to people at home and extending the Good Neighbours service, where good samaritans borrow books on behalf of their neighbours. Find the consultation at https://www.devon.gov.uk/haveyoursay/document/mobile-libraries