We are authors, many of whom have attended the Northern Children’s Book Festival and other events in the region over many years. We have enjoyed the tremendous warmth and hospitality of young book lovers in the North East and the librarians and teachers who introduce them to the joy of reading.
We are therefore appalled to hear that council leaders are planning draconian cuts to the city’s libraries. The UK is 25th in the PISA international reading rankings. This is no time to cut libraries. It is the young and the elderly who disproportionately depend on branch libraries. The cost in educational underachievement would far outweigh any savings made by cuts.
It is not the role of a Labour council to act as a conduit for the coalition government’s ‘austerity’ cuts which disproportionately hit the poorest and most vulnerable.
We call on Newcastle’s councillors to reconsider this wrong and immoral course.
Yours faithfully,
Alan Gibbons
Tommy Donbavand
Anne Fine
Beverley Naidoo
Theresa Breslin
Bali Rai
Katherine Langrish
Tim Bowler
Cathy Cassidy
Mary Hoffman
Steve Cole
Paul Hudson
Penny Dolan
Ann Turnbull
Beverley Naidoo
Lucy Coats
Dave Cryer
Bernard Ashley
John Dougherty
Angela Topping
Janine Amos
Margaret Storr
Danuta Reah
Sally Prue
Duncan Pile
Lori Fotheringham
Keren David
Ian Bland
Barry Hutchinson
Jim O'Neill
Tim Collins
Dugaldheelder Ferguson
Theresa Tomlinson
Veronique Martin
Malaika Rose Stanley
Val Bierman
Five Leaves Publications
Paul Shackley
Desmond Clarke
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