The letter below is one that I have recently sent to Cllr Mark Hawthorne at Gloucestershire Coun­ty Council. A similar letter has also been sent to Mark Harper, MP. I would be grateful if you could include this in your next letters page.

'Change the hours that libraries open – don't close them.

I am writing to you to voice my concern about your proposed library closures in Gloucestershire.

No library should be closed at all in any town or village in any part of England because this is a direct attack on the education prospects of those people who have chosen to live in the "wrong" place. We no longer have a manufacturing industry and are already a nation of importers – a "parasitic nation" I have heard us called on the Continent. We could add "semi-literate" to this description too if your plans are followed through.

You cannot have libraries in some areas and not others. That is simply not fair and it is "pie-in-the-sky" thinking if you expect people to travel to other towns to use a service that they deserve to have on their doorsteps. If the axe has to fall on our libraries then it should fall fairly and library hours should be reduced as necessary across the board. No library should be closed: shame on you for even considering such an idea. Every young person should be able to access a local library and have the opportunity to develop his or her literacy and research skills. It is hardly a forward-looking country that allows this opportunity for a select few because they happen to be rich or live in the "right" town.

As a secondary school teacher I am faced with a growing number of 11 year-olds arriving at school each year who have the literacy levels of a 6-10 year old. They are then put through an academic system that quickly leaves them further behind and many are then seriously misbehaving, or simply switched off from education by the age of 14. They then become the ones that do not get the 5 A*-C grades every August, up to 70 per cent in some areas. The primary aim of every library should be to get our young people through their doors.

We have to invest in our young people because they are our future. I propose the following, which should still save money but also keeps libraries open, primarily for the use of young people, but also for the community. Libraries should be open when the schools are closed. So my suggested hours would be Monday-Friday 4-7pm; Saturday 10am-3pm.

Twenty hours per week is both ample and affordable – a simple solution to an urgent problem. Then, when times are more prosperous, we can open the libraries to their full hours again.'

– Ivan Woodward, Ruspidge Road, Cinderford.