A parish council which is attempting to cut costs by moving its headquarters into the nearest library has defended its move.

Buckhurst Hill Parish Council is hoping to sell its headquarters in Queen’s Road and move into the library up the street in a bid to save £35,000 a year.

As part of the deal, the library will once more be open for five days a week, rather than the current three, but the library’s reading room will be closed to the public as it is taken over for council business.

Library user Douglas Macdonald said that, despite the longer opening hours, the public would lose out.

The eighty-four-year-old from Queen’s Road said: “I have been using the library for 30 years and campaigning for extended opening hours for many years.

“What they have done is taken a table and stuck it in the middle of the next room and taken over the space where people can sit and read the paper. That is not replacing facilities.

“It has suddenly occurred to them that they cannot have parish meetings there so they have extended space for themselves, not for us.”

Nigel Moore, the council’s clerk, said that the entire community will benefit from the move.

He added: “The facilities that were provided in that room are already being provided elsewhere in the library.
“There is to be no additional cost to anybody and the library will be open longer.”

“There will be an ongoing discussion with the county council about how we can extend and improve library services.

“We will be closing our current office on August 9 and re-opening in the library after staff training on the 13th.

Aniket Patel, the chairman of the council said: “We are keen to promote the library as a community hub, and we welcome feedback from residents who have suggestions about additional ways that this can be achieved.”