PORLOCK'S library is on course to become the first community run facility of its type in West Somerset after civic leaders agreed to back the move financially.

Parish councillors have previously rejected the idea of keeping the library - which faces closure from the end of September under swingeing Somerset County Council cuts - linked in to the county service.

Remaining within the network would costs tens of thousands of pounds a year.

But on Wednesday, they voted to press ahead with the community initiative, which could mean an increase of just £2.87 a year in Council Tax on a Band D property.

Councillors are confident they have a mandate to raise the levy following a public meeting earlier this year at which villagers said overwhelmingly they would be prepared to face higher bills to ensure the future of a raft of local facilities regarded as vital to Porlock's future.

Saving the library, albeit to be run largely with the help of volunteers, will be the first move that puts villagers' previous pledge to the test.

Cllr Nickie Haynes, part of a working group looking at the community option, told councillors at Wednesday's meeting that if the council chose not to continue to run a library from the Old School - where it is currently located - it would still have to meet certain costs simply by virtue of being owners of the building.

When the county council ends its responsibility for the library, the parish will have to pick up the tab for more than £7,500 in lost rent, rates and other costs.

These already represent a figure of £10.30 a year on a Band D property.

"If the council proceeds with the community library, the cost of rates could be reduced to £600 by obtaining charitable status," said Cllr Haynes.

Investing a further £4,500 for staff costs would mean a net increase of £2,100 on the existing costs.

Cllr Haynes said if the village tried to run the library solely on volunteers, there could be a problem of reliability.

"If you have someone who is paid, not only are they more likely to be reliable but also accountable."

She said the possibility of renting out the space currently used by the library to a commercial tenant had been raised by some villagers and investigated by the working group.

But the view from local estate agents was that finding a tenant would be an unlikely prospect.

"On a scale of one to ten, it is about minus five," said Cllr Haynes.

"Porlock is not the best place to run a commercial venture so the idea is almost dead in the water."

The library would be run by a management committee, whose members would include a parish council representative.

It would seek charitable status which Cllr Haynes said would make it impossible to impose a library membership charge. But voluntary contributions could be requested from users.

These have been anticipated at a "very conservative" figure of £600 but council chairman Cllr Alan Wright said based on the very positive responses from an earlier village questionnaire, the figure was likely to be much higher.

A total of 78 per cent of those responding to the survey rated the library as very important, with a further 18 per cent describing it as important.

And 85 per cent of respondents said they would be willing to contribute to the costs of maintaining the service, including some who are not currently library users.

Cllr Wright said that if just 200 people were prepared to pay £10 a year - the minimum figure responders to the questionnaire had indicated - this would bring in £2,000.

And he said the current number of library users was much higher than 200.

Porlock is also hoping to pick up a one-off grant of up to £5,000 which the county council is offering to libraries facing closure in the autumn.

Cllr Haynes said it was hoped that more income could be generated through a range of other measures, such as installing a coffee machine and using the space for other activities when the library was closed.

Cllr Kim Rowe admitted that she had previously had reservations about going ahead with a community run library.

"I fully support the concept but I wasn't happy about the numbers," she said.

However, she said now the broad sums had been worked out, she was much happier.

"It is not too much money," she said.

Representatives of the working group are due to meet county council library chiefs today (Friday) for further talks on taking the community venture forward.

Meanwhile, there was better news this week on a legal challenge being made by campaigners to save all 11 Somerset libraries threatened with closure.

Watchet Library, one of those facing the axe, is being used as a test case in a judicial review claim against the county council's decision.

But problems with the Legal Services Commission, which handles legal aid was threatening to delay a court hearing.

However, following the success of library campaigners in Gloucestershire last Thursday, protagonists in Somerset are now more confident.

Arguments put forward by Gloucestershire won support in the High Court, with judges ruling the local authority did have a case to answer and also upholding an injunction previously granted that effectively gives threatened libraries a stay of execution.

Somerset campaigners are hopeful of winning a similar injunction.