The report of the inquiry into Wirral council's plan to close eleven public libraries is out, and is a precise and scathing analysis. It lists a series of failures by the politicians in charge, failures to take account of the library needs of those who elected them, to devise a strategy for library services, and to attend to the needs of groups of adults and of all children in the borough.
Wirral caved in before the results were published, withdrawing the proposals.
I'm not sure it's possible to overstate how significant this is. This victory won by a local and national campaign, including CILIP, will make every town hall philistine think twice before cutting libraries.
For more, see Laura Swaffield and Bob McKee
