Volunteers at Batley library who watched helplessly as the shelves were emptied in a book sale misunderstanding are urging those who took books to come back and help save the Grade II-listed building.
An advert posted on social media said customers could fill a bag with books from a sale table for £1, but sections of the library were “decimated” as people loaded library books into their bags, believing the library was closing down.
Steve McGrath, of Friends of Batley Library, said the library had been inundated with people offering to buy new library books for the shelves, but he said support was needed instead to save the building.
Kirklees council is proposing to sell the building, which was given to the people of Batley by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, and move the library into Batley town hall, which would raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to help plug a budgetary black hole.
McGrath said he hoped the people who took books would come back to support those trying to keep the library open. He added: “If they had the passion to come here to empty, please have the passion to support us, this little group of people trying to keep it open.”
The building was used by a diverse group of people of all ages, social groups and ethnicities, McGrath said. “This is the only building in the whole town where everybody comes without being drawn in by any cohesion team, they just come here naturally without being told.
“This is such a natural hub of the community here and it would be such a shame to lose it. Everybody’s here because it’s such a beautiful building. It’s just a family and that’s what I’m frightened will be lost if we move out of this building.”
Last month the council said it would have to make “really tough decisions” as it hoped to save £47.8m in next year’s budget to avoid bankruptcy, blaming government cuts to local authorities over the last 12 years and an increase in the use of local services due to the cost of living crisis.
It is one of several councils on the brink of issuing a section 114 notice, which would signal it is unable to balance its budget for the next year.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said councils were “responsible for the management of their own finances”.
