Alan Moore, the comic books writer known for creating Watchmen and V for Vendetta, has threatened to halt the filming of a television project set to take place in Northampton if the midlands town's council goes ahead with plans to close local libraries.

Moore, 63, was born in Northampton into a working class family who had lived there for generations. He claims that it was access to the town's libraries that inspired him to become a writer. As he told the Northampton Chronicle & Echo: “The facilities that I relied upon when I grew up in a house that didn't have many books... but there was always the library. It was a treasured institution that made me what I am.

“When I was five, I was getting my mother to take me up there once or twice a week so that I could take out four books, that was the maximum you could borrow at any one time. And I would read them within three or four days and come back for some more. That was where I read most of the books that inspired me.”

Last week, Northampton's council chiefs unveiled early budget proposals to save the cash-strapped authority £9.6 million. They included plans to “redesign” library services – meaning community groups would run 21 smaller libraries while the doors of up to 28 others would be shut across the county – to save £290,000.