Villagers in Peasedown St John are counting down the days to the opening of their new community library.

Over a year ago, local Independent Councillors, Karen Walker and Sarah Bevan, launched a campaign to open such a facility, in the wake of cuts to the mobile library service and restructuring of services through B&NES Council’s Modern Libraries programme.

Following on from a meeting with Council Directors, Cabinet Members, the local councillors and Peasedown St John Residents’ Association in February 2018, a steering group was put together to manage the village’s application.

Cllr Walker said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has responded to surveys, given up their time, delivered leaflets, come along to meetings and baked cakes! Over 2,700 households received a survey from us last Autumn asking for their views on whether or not they wanted to see a village library, where they thought it should be located, and if they would like to volunteer. The response was fantastic!”

A steering group has seen twenty volunteers recruited, an arrangement with Curo for St John’s Community Hall to be used for free to house the new library; pledges of over £5,000 in funding to launch the project, and a new logo which has been designed locally. A full application has now been submitted to B&NES Council, which is being assessed by the Local Authority’s legal department.

Cllr Bevan added: “We are now waiting for B&NES Council to make the final decision on our library application. We have been working on creating policies and firming up the application for over a year, so we are confident they will look on it favourably. We would also like to thank our Community Partners, Peasedown St John Primary School and Wansdyke Play Association for supporting our application.”

Anyone who would like to get involved with Peasedown St John Community Library can email: [email protected]