Celebrities sue council over library closures

AS DEMONSTRATIONS go, it was a rather civilised affair; a far cry from the great unwashed waving placards and chanting slogans. But then it was made up of the cream of London's cultural society. And it was about libraries.

Yesterday the broadcaster Joan Bakewell, the writer Deborah Moggach and the actor Roger Lloyd-Pack announced that they are mounting a legal challenge to Camden Council's decision to close three of its 13 public libraries, and raised the prospect of celebrity sit-ins featuring Ben Elton, Harry Enfield and Alan Bennett. A formal complaint will be delivered to Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on Thursday and the campaigners, led by Plug, the Camden Public Library Users Group, hope that it will force an inquiry into the closures, which are scheduled to take place later this year.

The Labour-controlled council says the libraries are under-used and the cost of issuing books is far higher than elsewhere in the capital. It has promised to extend opening hours at the remaining libraries. But Ms Bakewell said the closure decision had been made without sufficient public consultation. "This is against the interest of the reading public and against education, about which we heard so much during the election," she said.

Mr Lloyd-Pack, who lives in Kentish Town, quoted from King Lear, and said the "scurvy politicians" of the council needed to understand that libraries were a vital part of the social fabric of a community.

The campaigners claim that the plan to close the libraries at Chalk Farm, Belsize Park and Kilburn contravenes the 1964 Libraries and Museums Act, which states that councils must provide an efficient and comprehensive library service.

The protesters, who number thousands in the borough, have already pledged to join sit-ins and promised yesterday that their campaign would become a lot more robust if necessary. Ms Bakewell said: "If we have to sit in we will but I hope it will not come to that. Reading is a civilised activity and let's hope that a civilised campaign will work. "We are not going to go away. This is a very important issue and we will not give up."

Tom Selwyn, of Plug, said:"The elderly, disabled and mothers with pushchairs will not be able to travel to other libraries. It would cost only pounds 200,000 out of a library budget of around pounds 5m to keep them open," he said. A spokesman for the council said Camden has more libraries per head than any other borough and that it was only trying to achieve the best service it could.

t Seven first novels from an international array of women writers are among those in the running for Britain's biggest book award, announced yesterday. Established stars Toni Morrison and Beryl Bainbridge sit alongside the first-time writers on the 20-strong "long-list" for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

The pounds 30,000 prize is awarded annually for the best novel of the year written by a woman in English and published in the UK. The winner will be announced in June.