COST-cutting plans to axe 11 Somerset libraries - including Watchet and Porlock - were kicked off the shelf this week after a High Court judge ruled them unlawful.

Campaigners who have waged a long and determined battle for more than a year to save the facilities were jubilant after winning an unprecedented and surprise victory.

In his judgement on a three-day judicial review brought by campaigners in both Somerset and neighbouring Gloucestershire, Judge Martin McKenna found both Somerset and Gloucestershire county councils had failed to take account of the needs of vulnerable people and not complied with their public sector equality duties when pushing through the closures.

And Judge McKenna ordered the closure decisions to be quashed.

The news led to celebrations outside Watchet library on Wednesday, the day of the judgement, with campaigners barely able to contain their delight.

Local library user Rebecca Hird was used as a test case for the Somerset action.

Watchet Library Friends chairman Peter Murphy travelled to London for the verdict and was able to speak briefly to campaigners back in West Somerset shortly after coming out of court.

"His first words to me were, we've won," said WLF spokesman Jan Simpson-Scott.

"It's an amazing feeling to think that our library is going to remain open.

"I believe the result is fair. Apart from being an important community resource, Watchet library is a jewel in so many ways.

"Now it will continue to be the hub of the community, providing a vital front-line service to the town.

"Whilst WLF has worked hard to achieve this result, it would not have been possible without the huge support from the people of Watchet who have helped in so many different ways."

WLF spearheaded a county-wide fundraising campaign which brought in more than £9,000 towards the legal costs of the case.

Somerset and Gloucestershire councils have been ordered to pay campaigners' costs even though Judge McKenna ruled they had not breached two of the three points on which the judicial review was based.

He found they had not breached the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act and also had not rushed through a consultation process on the closures.

But he ruled they not undertaken a sufficiently thorough information gathering exercise and properly analysed that information in relation to the impact on vulnerable people.

Although the ruling effectively sends Somerset County Council back to the drawing board, it may not herald a permanent reprieve for the threatened libraries.

The authority had been looking to make a £1.3 million saving with the closures, which also included the axing of four mobile libraries that has already taken effect.

County council leader Cllr Ken Maddock said although the authority would accept all the judge's directions and act accordingly, it would also take time to consider the lengthy judgement and discuss any steps it needed to take.

"We did not come into this administration wanting to close things, especially services as dear to people's hearts as our libraries," he said.

"The decision was taken after great deliberation and with great reluctance.

"Our income is drastically down and at the same time the demand for our services is increasing.

"Our top priority is to provide a safety net for vulnerable children and adults - that is why we have to make savings and are looking at everything we do as a council."

Cllr Maddock insisted that the authority had worked with communities ever since taking the decision to reduce the libraries' budget and said it had been tremendously encouraging to see the number of people prepared to take over many of the libraries concerned.

Porlock was one of those who had decided to set up a community run library if the plug was pulled on the county-run service.

Parish council chairman Cllr Alan Wright told the Free Press that from a village point of view he was delighted with the outcome of the judicial review.

"It is really good news and it means that we will not lose the £7,500 a year income we receive in rent from the county council for the library building," he said.

But he said he was fearful of where else the county council would find the savings it had hoped would come from the library closures.

"The axe may fall in an even worse place. Obviously this is a huge positive for Porlock but I'm not putting out the bunting just yet until we have a fuller picture," he said.

* Town councillors in Watchet agreed this week to ask West Somerset Council if it would transfer ownership of the library building on the Esplanade to the town council.

The building - a former lifeboat house - was given to Watchet by local philanthropist and mill owner Leonard Laity Stoate, who funded the cost of its conversion to a library.

Although it is currently leased to the county council, if the library closed it would revert to the district council.

But town councillors believe they should have control of it, since a covenant means it would always have to be for community use.