PROPOSALS to recruit new officers to promote libraries have been rejected.

Essex county councillors met to discuss the council’s budget and Liberal Democrats proposed increasing the libraries budget by £150,000.

This additional funding would be used to recruit four audience development officers to promote reading and the love of books and literature.

They also proposed taking unused cash reserves to extend, convert or remodel library buildings to make them more flexible spaces.

However, the proposal was turned down.

Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Colchester, Martin Goss, added: “This farce has to stop.

Essex County Council needs to stop, listen and look at what damage this will cause to communities of all ages across Essex.

“This will be one cut too far the public will never forgive.”

Essex County Council said the best way for people to ensure their views about the library service are listened to is to take part in the consultation.

The consultation website crashed for ten hours during a County Hall protest so the county council agreed to extend the consultation by an extra day and it will now end tomorrow.

So far, 18,000 comments have been registered.

Hundreds of protesters from across Essex took to the streets of Chelmsford to lobby the county council to have a change of heart.

Demonstrators also marched from Prettygate library to Colchester’s central library on Saturday to show the distance people would have to walk if the Prettygate premises shut.

Prettygate councillors Beverly Davies and Sue Lissimore also met Susan Barker, county councillor responsible for libraries, at County Hall to talk about the future of Prettygate Library and ask her to reconsider closing it.

Ms Davies said: “We believe residents want the library building and the library service to remain and this is what we are trying to achieve.”

Mrs Barker said: “The way people access books and information has changed and now only 16 per cent of Essex residents, that’s one in six, have used their library card for borrowing or for accessing the network in the last year.

“Demand for e-books, e-magazines and e-audio has risen by 205 per cent over five years, from 61,000 loans to 186,000, with demand expected to continue to grow.

“About 85 per cent of adults now own a smartphone and one in ten use a tablet or similar screen every day.

“We want to create a library service with a wider appeal, which is more relevant to and a better fit with people’s lives, one which is online 24-7, is faster, and offers users more choice.”

n Listen to the Gazette’s 30-minute Colchester Chat podcast with Sue Barker on gazette-news.co.uk or on iTunes.