PORLOCK has taken the first step in considering the future of its library with the launch of a questionnaire to test public views.

The parish council is sending the mini survey to all 408 registered library users, as well as circulating it widely throughout the village, which is faced with losing the community facility.

Somerset County Council is proposing to withdraw funding from Porlock, along with 19 other libraries in Somerset as part of swingeing cuts to a range of public services.

They will all close unless local communities step in to run them.

Porlock Parish Council clerk Christine Fitzgerald said the announcement had raised real concerns in the village about future library services.

"We recognise the need for the county council to save money but the library is a core part of our village services," she said.

"Many of our residents are elderly and using alternative libraries, such as Minehead, is not really a viable option for them."

As reported in last week's Free Press, parish councillors are due to meet library service chiefs later this month to discuss the issues and look at the available options.

Mrs Fitzgerald said the questionnaire, which will be distributed shortly, would give councillors a clear picture of the needs and priorities of residents.

"It will be well publicised and widely available and we urge everyone to let us know their view."

Parish council chairman Cllr Alan Wright said councillors had been anticipating the county council's proposals for some time.

"We have been developing ideas for how we might be able, as a community, to continue to offer a good but more limited library service.

"This would require local funding and before we do anything we need to understand whether there is community support for such an initiative and the services which are most important to residents."

In addition to Porlock, libraries in Watchet, Dulverton, Wiveliscombe, Bishops Lydeard and Nether Stowey are also earmarked for closure, with the number of mobile libraries in the county due to be cut from six to just two - a move that will undoubtedly hit rural West Somerset hard.

Meanwhile, a consultation document issued by the county council ahead of its plans to make a final decision on the library closures at the end of February has been criticised by a Williton councillor.

Cllr Hugh Davies, who represents the village on West Somerset Council, said this week that the questionnaire - available online and in local libraries - fell a long way short of what was required for a full, comprehensive and meaningful consultation.

"It is nothing more than a gesture and not designed to deliver the accurate views of the public," he said.

"It is so skewed as to enable the county council to demonstrate spuriously that there is little or no opposition to its plans to destroy large sections of a highly regarded and much cherished service."

Cllr Davies said there had been no attempt to gauge what the wider use of Somerset's libraries might be.

"Their role extends well beyond that of offering book-lending facilities and many, if not all, are also used by those wishing to rent DVDs or to have temporary internet access - areas of activity which merely raise the importance of the role libraries fulfil within local communities."

"This document assumes that services are, indeed, to be decreased - which in many ways makes a mockery of the whole exercise."

Cllr Davies said nowhere in the consultation document was there any opportunity for those questioned to call for services to be increased, which he felt was the feeling of the vast majority of library users.

Under the county council's proposals, Williton and Minehead libraries would continue to be funded, but with a ten per cent reduction in opening hours.

Williton, however, could be relocated, possibly into the nearby district council offices.

Cllr Davies said he was hugely opposed to any relocation.

"This would amount to a scandalous abandonment of a relatively new, purpose-built facility with outstandingly good invalid access and its replacement by a vastly inferior one where invalid access would be unlikely to be as good."

He said it was madness to consider scaling back library provision in Williton at a time when it was proposed to withdraw funding from neighbouring Watchet.

"Since Watchet library will close at worst and provide a less comprehensive service at best, the likelihood is that Williton library will become more heavily used."

Cllr Davies has outlined his concerns in a letter to the county council.

Wiveliscombe is continuing its fight against the threatened closure of its library by calling on the county council to put back any decisions until proper discussions have taken place and solutions found to the controversial proposals.

The recently formed Friends of Wiveliscombe Library met this week and has set up a communications and campaigning sub-groups to increase pressure on the county.

The town is also taking part in a Somerset-wide 'Read In' initiative being held tomorrow (Saturday) in a bid to highlight the plight of the county's libraries.