The comforting tap of knitting needles, clink of teaspoons in mugs and excitable chatter fills Blakenall library in Walsall, where a group of 17 has gathered for the weekly Knit and Natter session.

Knitting patterns and sewing books are passed around the group, whose members range from giggling octogenarians to nine-year-olds with their brows furrowed in concentration over their cross-stitching.

Yet a sword of Damocles hangs over the gathering. On Monday, Walsall council put forward proposals to close 15 of the 16 libraries in the area in a bid to save £2.9m per year. Should it go ahead, Blakenall library – and its Knit and Natter group – would be no more.

The news of the potential mass closures came as a devastating blow to residents, who have come to rely on the library for more than borrowing books. Janet Hodson, 71, who sat with Chloe, six, Lilly, nine, and Kylie, 11, at her feet as she corrected some missed stitches in a yellow blanket they had been working on, described the proposal as diabolical.

“It’s absolutely devastating,” she said. “For an area the size of Walsall to just have one library, which for older people like me is hard to get to, is absolutely ludicrous.

“This library means everything to me. We’re here once a week at our Knit and Natter, we’re here for our over-50s clubs and we have people come in for talks. It gets you out of the house for a couple of hours. Especially for my sister, who is also here; if she didn’t have this group she’d be sitting in the flat all day on her own.”

She added: “Where do we go if they close the libraries? And just look, it’s half-term and I’ve got three youngsters here learning to knit. These spaces disappear and they’ve got nowhere to go.”

Indeed, figures show that the 16 libraries are not underused. Over the past two years, the libraries have had about 1 million visits, with approximately 775,000 books borrowed each year.

Walsall’s New Art Gallery also faces proposed cuts. Photograph: Andrew Fox

The news of the potential closures came as a particular blow to Kylie, 11, who promptly sat down to write the council a letter.

“They can’t close it down,” she said. “We come here every day, it’s just up the road so our mum lets us walk. It would be so sad if we couldn’t come, we spend all our time here with the books. I love it here.”

The drastic proposal to cut all but one of the libraries is an embarrassing back pedal for the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition council that, while in opposition, had made an explicit proposal not to cut any library services. In February, five Walsall libraries were saved from planned closures by Labour and Lib Dem councillors, who then gained control of the council in May as a coalition.

However, this week the council was forced to admit that budget restrictions were “more severe” than anticipated and £86m needs to be found to balance the books by 2020. Cuts are also being proposed to Walsall’s New Art Gallery and other services.

“The council fully appreciates that the art gallery and libraries are much-loved by those that use them,” the council said in a statement. “However, like many councils across the country, this authority can’t ignore the fact that savings have to be made.”

Another suggestion being put forward is that five Walsall libraries will be kept open, but all run on a budget of £1m. Both proposals will be opened up to local residents for discussion over the next few weeks. A petition to save the libraries and art gallery had more than 2,500 signatures on Tuesday.

For mother-of-five Louise Taylor, who home-schools her children, it would “devastate” her family if Blakenall library was to shut.



“We don’t have the internet at home so we use the internet here and the children have done computer courses here and they always take out books,” she said, with son Ruben, 11, sitting diligently knitting beside her.

“For us it’s really important and in this area, where there’s not much in the way of money, having a resource where you can get on the internet, where you can borrow books and where you can meet other people, it’s just essential. If this place closes where are the children going to go? There’s nowhere else.”

Child poverty is a particular problem in Walsall with figures showing that in the borough there are 16,000 children living in poverty – and in some areas 40% living in extreme poverty.

Sonia O’Brien, 52, a regular at Blakenall library, said the council should be “ashamed” about proposing to close one of the few services available to children in the area.

She added: “I’m a kidney patient and I’m on dialysis three times a week and I just wouldn’t be able to travel all that distance to the central library. To be able to come here, just up the road, is ideal.

“There are quite a few people who come here who have disabilities and to close the local library means they are the ones who will suffer the most.”

At nearby Bloxwich library, Beverley Horton, 27, looked crestfallen at the news it was on the brink of closure. She indicated to her four children who rushed ahead excitedly through the library doors.

“All my children would be gutted if it shut,” she said. “They love coming here, religiously every week and getting books and bringing them all back home. Even when I was pregnant, I’d read library books to the eldest when he was just a bump.”

Horton sighed deeply. “We never miss coming, it such a big part of their life. I don’t know how I’d explain to them if it was suddenly gone.”