WATCHET Library has been saved after West Somerset Council made a U-turn and agreed to transfer the building’s freehold to the town council.

The future of library services in the town hung in the balance for several weeks until a legal wrangle and impasse ended with the district council’s announcement last Thursday.

It had previously refused to transfer the freehold to Watchet Town Council, claiming it owned the building, which was gifted to the people of Watchet by benefactor Leonard Laity Stoate.

Its about-turn means Watchet Town Council, once detailed terms are finalised, can go ahead and form a Community Library Partnership (CLP) to run the library, which would otherwise have to close as part of sweeping library service changes by Somerset County Council.

The town council had said the formation of a CLP to run the library was conditional on the building returning to Watchet ownership, but the district council initially refused to transfer the freehold and offered only a sub-lease or assignment of the existing lease, as it regarded the building as its own asset which it could dispose of as it saw fit.

The family of Leonard Stoate, who left the Watchet library building to the people of the town, threw its weight firmly behind Watchet Town Council in its wrangle with West Somerset Council.

Three members of the family – two solicitors and the 102-year-old son of Leonard Stoate – wrote to the Friends of Watchet Library after the group contacted the Leonard Laity Stoate Trust to ask if it could inform the family about the threat to the library.

Leonard Stoate’s surviving son David, Nigel Stoate, a partner in a London-based international law firm, and Philip Stoate, also a solicitor and secretary of the Leonard Laity Stoate Charitable Trust, all expressed their concern.

Peter Murphy, chairman of Watchet Library Friends, said: “I view the decision of West Somerset Council to transfer Watchet Library to the town council with some relief so that now, through the Community Library Partnership, the future of the library can be safeguarded as the original benefactor, Leonard Laity Stoate, would have wanted. “My thanks on behalf of the Friends go to all those who have influenced the eventual outcome.”Full reports on both stories are in this week’s Free Press (January 11).