A CABINET member has apologised for lack of consultation on the closure of St James's Street library.

Geraldine Reardon, cabinet member for leisure, arts and culture, responded to criticism from two residents, Sarah Kinson and Janet Wright, at the Walthamstow West Community Council.

She admitted there had been virtually no consultation' on the closure, which saved £70,000 this year.

She said. "I think it is appalling what the council did. The council did have signs up, unfortunately they were taken down twice." Cllr Reardon said that the library building was in bad condition and councillors were concerned about how much money it would cost to bring it up to scratch, and to make it accessible to wheelchair users.

She described this year's council tax rise of 2.5 per cent as very low.

"In order to do that, savings have to be made but more than that the council wanted to make sure it was putting its resources into the libraries that were better used," she said.

Cllr Reardon defended the decision by saying that St James's Street had been the least used library in Waltham Forest and every resident is within one mile of a library. Mrs Wright said the difference in usage between St James's Street and the second least used library, Higham Hill, was only 0.2 per cent and that for the smallest library in the borough it was very well used.

But Cllr Reardon countered, saying: "We have ten libraries, which is considered a very good number for a population of our size. Hackney has only seven libraries for the size of same population."

Protester Peter Tan said "An injustice has been done to us.

"The council criticised our library as shabby and old. But we, the residents, view it as a faithful, loyal friend with friendly, helpful staff running it."