THE leaders of West Somerset and Taunton Deane Borough Councils have said they want to find a solution to the legal wrangle over Watchet library – but the clock is ticking and plans for the library were meant to be resolved by the end of this month.

Watchet Town Council, as well as Somerset County Council, wrote to Cllr Anthony Trollope-Bellew, leader of West Somerset Council, and John Williams, leader of Taunton Deane Borough Council, to ask for their support in resolving the wrangle over the library building.

Town council chairman John Irven said both he and Somerset County Council had written to the leaders, who had replied that they wanted to find a solution and were working on it.

But the town council is facing a deadline of the end of December, by which time Somerset County Council said it needed to know if it were going forward with the formation of a Community Library Partnership to run the library building.

“We hope with pressure and support from Somerset County Council, this will bear fruit in the new year, but I can’t hold my breath until I hear something,” Cllr Irven said.

The town council said it would like to form a Community Library Partnership (CLP) to keep the library building going after Somerset County Council stops running it from April as part of sweeping library service changes around the county.

It has asked West Somerset Council to transfer the building’s freehold to it, and says it was gifted to the town - but West Somerset Council is claiming it owns the building.

Cllr Irven said the Watchet Library Friends group had also now contacted the Leonard Laity Stoate Charitable Trust to ask for its support in making sure the original intention of Leonard Stoate, who gave the building to the people of Watchet for a library, was followed.