WEST Somerset communities faced with losing their libraries under cuts set to decimate the service countywide have begun looking at ways of saving the vital community facilities.

Somerset County Council is poised to withdraw funding from 20 of its 34 libraries, with those in Porlock, Watchet, Dulverton, Bishops Lydeard, Wiveliscombe and Nether Stowey among the casualties.

Rural communities across a wide area are set to be further hit by the proposal to axe four of Somerset's six mobile libraries.

Although libraries in Williton and Minehead will remain funded, they face a ten per cent cut in opening hours, with Williton also facing possible relocation from its purpose-built base in Killick Way.

A countywide campaign, including a petition, has been launched which could force a review of the proposals and potentially derail the county's plans to make a final decision on the closures before the end of February.

And the first stage of a possible legal challenge has also been mounted.

But alongside the fight-back, some communities are beginning to look at what it would mean to take up the county's challenge to step in and run their libraries.

Reports on action being taking in Wiveliscombe, Porlock and Watchet, and on calls for a judicial review in the Free Press (14:1:11)