THREAT TO BUDLEIGH LIBRARY OPENING HOURS AVERTED (SPRING 2026)

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It won the ‘Best of Budleigh’ award in 2024 as the organisation ‘that best embodies the heart and soul’ of the local area. 

An area which boasts one of the outstanding literary festivals in the South West. 

And 2026 has beeN designated by the UK government as the National Year of Reading. Santa’s visit to Budleigh Library last Christmas.  

So, not surprisingly, there was strong local opposition to a proposal by the body which operates libraries in Devon on behalf of Devon County Council to reduce services at Budleigh Salterton Library and 49 other libraries in the county. 

Susan Woodman, of the Budleigh Library Friends Management Committee, warned that the proposal would have meant that the town’s Library would have been open only three days per week and would have been closed at lunchtime on two of those days. She urged residents to make their views known by responding before the closing date of 22 February 2026 to the consultation document issued by Devon County Council. A well-attended consultation event was held in Budleigh’s Public Hall to gather people’s views on how they value their library; some residents were concerned that a cut in the opening hours would be the start of ‘a slippery slope to permanent closure’. 

On 24 February at its budget meeting, the County Council, in which Liberal Democrats have a majority, stated that sufficient funds had been found to support library delivery. Some have accused the Council of making ’an eleventh hour U turn’, but others have pointed out that the increase in funding merely reflects a desire to recognise the strength of public feeling on the issue. The ‘incredible’ figure of 22,000 responses ’speaks volumes about how much people value their libraries,’ said Councillor Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin.