A parish council wants Rutland County Council to answer questions about why there is no money to keep its village library open. 

The county authority is considering closing Ryhall Library this year, which it says is due to not being able to pay for the £250,000 it says is needed to turn the library into a proposed living well hub. 

Until last month the plan had been to convert Ryhall and three other libraries at Oakham, Uppingham and Ketton into new living well hubs, which would include community sessions and coffee mornings. But according to the draft budget papers published last month, the money has run out and the £70,000 set aside for Ryhall is not enough to do the work needed. 

At this Thursday's (Feb 27) budget meeting, Ryhall Parish Council, which along with the newly formed Ryhall Library Action Group, is fighting to ensure the building in Coppice Road keeps on lending books, will attempt to gain some answers and reassurances. 

At the meeting parish councillor Andrew Nebel will press the authority on elements of the budget for the 2025/26 meeting, which is due to be approved by the full council. 

He will ask why 16 per cent of the authority's predicted savings for the year ahead will come from the place directorate – in which the library service sits – and why with a one million reserve set aside in this department, some of it cannot be used on the library repairs. 



There has been a large public reaction against the proposed closure of the library (Photo: LDRS)

The parish council and action group dispute the repairs and say a sum in the £20,000 could make adequate repairs to the building. 

In a letter to the authority's chief executive Mark Andrews and the leader Gale Waller (Lib Dem), Councillor Nebel said: "In essence we feel strongly that the case for closure, which is fundamentally based on an incorrect assessment of maintenance and repair costs, is unsustainable and that an affordable solution is available, enabling this valuable village asset to remain open. It is the only RCC facility in the east of the county beyond the A1." 

The authority is currently holding a public consultation about the library's future, with a final decision due to be made in April and the campaign group has made a formal submission to the authority, saying that it has a preferred two options – to keep the library open as is, or to hand it over to become a community managed facility. 

There are a number of community managed libraries in existence over the country as local authorities decide they can no longer afford to run and maintain them. 

The budget meeting is being held on Thursday at 7pm and the library campaigners will hold a protest before the meeting starts.