Author attacks ‘short-sighted’ library cuts

Best-selling author Ann Cleeves has blasted plans by Moray Council to close public libraries throughout the region.

The creator of two popular TV detective series – Shetland and Vera – was reacting to the news that the authority is considering swingeing cuts to community centres, school crossing patrollers and libraries.

Mrs Cleeves has been a champion of local book groups and facilities across the north of Scotland and has attended a range of events in the Highlands and Islands. She described the proposals by the ruling Moray Conservative/Independent coalition to shut every library in the area, except the amenity in Elgin, as “short-sighted”.

She said: “Libraries these days aren’t just about books, although these are obviously very important. They are meeting places, focal points for whole communities.

“Shut the door on a library and who knows how many people you are leaving isolated and how many friendships and partnerships you are cutting off. It angers me that these decisions are being made.

“It is also very shortsighted, because reading helps us see the world through other people’s eyes – and we need that more than ever now.”

News of the cuts has already prompted the resignation of one former Conservative councillor, Walter Wilson.

But yesterday, Donald Gatt, the Tory member for Keith and Cullen, said: “Unless £18m worth of savings are found by March, 2019, all our reserves will have been used and Moray Council will be bankrupt.”

Writer Ann Cleeves