Campaigners secure legal aid for judicial review challenge to library plans

Campaigners have secured legal aid for a judicial review challenge to Vale of Glamorgan Council’s plans to change the way their local library runs.

The Save Rhoose Library group said the authority’s plans would see their library become a community-managed branch run by volunteers. Its opening hours are also set to be cut.

Michael Imperato of Watkins and Gunn Solicitors, lawyer to the Save Rhoose Library group, told Wales Online: “Many people now believe that everyone has access to the internet for information so that libraries are no longer as important as they used to be.

“This couldn’t be further from the truth. For some people libraries are the only resource they have and, as a result, they should not be dismissed as a necessity to the community.”

Imperato added that there had been a number of successful challenges to library closures proposed by councils and that the group hoped “to have a positive result with this case”.

Vale of Glamorgan Council has vowed to defend the claim.

In a statement its director of learning and skills, Jennifer Hill, said: “The council conducted a fully open and accessible consultation on our library strategy. We took great care to follow all relevant guidelines and can assure all that took part that their responses were fully considered before any decision was taken.

“We do not accept the claims made by the action group and fully intend to defend our position in the event of any legal action.”

There have been numerous judicial review challenges in recent years over planned changes by councils looking to make savings.

Lincolnshire recently faced the prospect of a second legal action over the future of its libraries.

Campaigners claimed the county council’s plan was “fundamentally no different” to an earlier plan that had been quashed by the High Court in July 2014 because of flaws in decision making and consultation.

In June 2014 Rhondda Cynon Taf Council agreed to reopen a library it had earmarked for closure after a campaigner, advised by Imperato, secured permission from a High Court judge to bring a challenge.

Other authorities to have faced or been threatened with legal proceedings include Surrey, Brent, Doncaster, Somerset and Gloucestershire.