OSCAR-WINNING screenwriter Simon Beaufoy has backed a campaign fighting proposed cuts at Skipton Library.
The writer of The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire joins fellow former Ermysted's Grammar School pupil, writer and poet Blake Morrison in opposing plans to replace professional staff with volunteers.
"The world is currently obsessed with internet technology, but as with all crazes, the pendulum will swing back when people realise the limitations of technology and the true worth not just of books but of libraries," said Mr Beaufoy who was brought up in Glusburn.
“Libraries bring people and their imaginations together. We are heading for a world where children sit in front of a screen being fed stories that bypass their imagination entirely. All the pictures, voices, worlds are done for them. In contrast, books- and the professionals who work with them- are vital in nurturing the imagination. This is where everything starts.”
A consultation on the future of Skipton, Ingleton, Cross Hills, Settle, and Bentham libraries is set to run until February next year and changes, if agreed, will take place in early 2017.
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