RESIDENTS can now participate in a consultation over council plans to close two libraries.
The authority says that the proposal to shut the South Chingford branch in Hall Lane and Harrow Green library in Leytonstone is the most efficient way of cutting £1million from the service's annual budget.
The council says it has no choice because of government cuts in funding, but critics say the authority should make savings elsewhere.
Other smaller libraries will have their opening hours slashed under the proposals, while the Walthamstow Central, North Chingford, Leyton and Leytonstone branches would have them extended.
Consultation forms are available from libraries between Monday June 20 2011 until Friday September 9.
But residents can now start filling in the form this weekend online.
Click here to do so and for more information.
However in an interview with the Guardian, the council's cabinet member for culture, Cllr Geraldine Reardon, said the consultation was not a referendum on closures.
She said the plans would be unlikely to change unless a “rational” and “financially sound” alternative proposal to save £1million was put forward during the consultation process.
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