Fight for music library

ANGRY music lovers are to meet at Lewes Town Hall on April 22 to try to save the music library service after 'devastating cuts' made by the county council.

The Friends of Lewes Music Library plan to form an action group at the public meeting, which starts at 8pm, to press the council to salvage the service, to call a moratorium on cutting back stock without consultation and to retain enough specialist librarians to keep an adequate service going.

'We fear for the future of the service now that music libraries have been closed in Eastbourne and Hastings, Lewes Music Library has been transferred greatly dimnished to Albion Street, and music librarians made redundant,' said Cynthia Eraut, chairman of the Friends.

'Many books, scores and recordings have already been weeded out and sold,' she said, describing the cuts as devastating.

Internationally-known singer John Tomlinson, who has lived in Lewes for 30 years, said he was 'appalled' that such a valuable body of material had been dispersed.

'It is impossible to re-assemble it,' he said. 'I offered to buy all the CDs, store them in my attic and give them back when the time was right, but I had no response.

'Recordings don't deteriorate with time or go out of date and I liked to listen to a variety of interpretations of an opera to enrich my own performance. I didn't care if it was a 20-year-old LP.

'What's being done is a terrible shame and it's been done so stealthily.'

Lewes composer Jonathan Harvey, whose work is played all over the world, said: 'To curtail the Lewes Music Library is a step nearer mediocrity and Lewes people deserve better.'

Mark Wigglesworth, who will be conducting at Covent Garden later this year, has lived near Lewes all his life and has used the music library since he was a student.

'There is no doubt that the value of the library far exceeds its cost and it is a tragedy that there are not more politicians far-sighted enough to see that,' he said.

'A library is a symbol of a community's curiosity, and one of the reasons so many musicians and artists have chosen to live in and around Lewes is that it has always been thought of as an outward-looking town that was interested in more things than it already knew.'

A county council spokesman said: 'Like any organisation, the council has to live within its means. It also has an obligation to review what it does to ensure that services are as widely accessible as possible and represent value for money.

'Our review looked at parts of the service that are used less than others to see if they should be retained or provided in a different way, and the use of the music library fell into this category. Music accounts for one per cent of library issues.

'Use of the three music libraries in Lewes, Eastbourne and Hastings shows a continued decline compared to increases in children's fiction and videos.

'The council has NOT closed the music library service. It is being integrated into mainstream libraries, as is the case at many other authorities.

'People will still be able to go to the three libraries and borrow recorded music. Due to the changes, we are able to increase the number of hours that people have access to recorded music. ' Comment - Page 7.