I READ with concern that Essex County Council are likely to close 25 out of the 78 libraries in Essex, nearly a third, with a further 18 earmarked to be run by volunteers.

While there are no plans to close Colchester Library, the actual library services within it are becoming gradually more sparse as it transitions into council offices under the fashionable and absurd tag "Community Hub".

We are told by those behind these closures that libraries are much less used these days as we can find our reading and research materials online or use Kindles.

This is a gross simplification. As someone who has worked in sixth form education for 28 years teaching A-level history, I know the value of libraries educationally.

Children need to be reading books from an early age in order to build up the literary skills needed to evaluate extracts of extended prose, a key A-level skill.

It is not the case the same skills or knowledge can be learned from reading a vastly reduced range of literature and historiopgraphy that is freely available online.

Many academic works are available only on pay-to-use sites or not at all online.

These online services are not free and exclude people in a way that a free lending service does not.

Every day of my working life I deal with the effects of children reading less and less at a younger age.

A habit of cutting and pasting from the internet, the distraction of snapchat while trying to work, an inability to cope with extended prose beyond bite-sized chunks.... the list goes on.

Yet some commentators tell us twe, the great unwashed, can just use the internet or go without.

Eton College boasts about its library, housing more than 150,000 items, ranging from the 9th to 21st centuries, because its knows the value of reading and this should not be the preserve of those who can afford to pay.

Libraries also provide a lifeline for many people who for whom they provide a social environment and a place to meet others. They certainly need to adapt and change and offer additional services.

However that is quite the opposite from simply closing them and denying people free access to a range of books and social activities.

It is completely disingenuous to use the argument that less people are borrowing books to justify closing libraries, when often the range and number of books within them is being reduced. This has happened to Colchester Library so, of course, less books are being borrowed.

It is also concerning that people who go to the "hub" to access services then have to engage in what can be highly personal conversations within what is still essentially a public area.

I would urge everyone to take part in the 12-week public consultation which begins on November 29.

Make no mistake, if we do not make our voices heard then out library services will continue to shrink.

I would also urge Essex County Council to look beyond a quick saving.

As Oscar Wilde said: "A cynic knows the price of everything but the value of nothing."

Mark Goacher
Colchester Green Party
Morant Road, Colchester