Essex County Council's library service seems to be shrinking before the eyes of local residents, Harlow's Liberal Democrats claimed today. Local Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Chris Millington said:

"As of last month, we have seen all magazines and journals taken out of libraries in Essex. Several local residents have already told us they miss the opportunity to pop in to the library to read their favourite regular publications.

Meanwhile, the county's mobile library service looks set for a drastic reduction in the number of routes it takes each week. To add insult to injury, the consultation meeting for Harlow residents to discuss this cut in service will be in Brentwood.

In the case of the magazines, neither councillors or the public were consulted and although there is a public consultation due on mobile libraries, the remit of the consultation is narrow.

Despite Conservative claims to the contrary, it is becoming apparent that a massive cost cutting exercise is being undertaken by the Conservative-run county council. County Council leader Lord Hanningfield stated that his publicity-grabbing bid to make £100m worth of savings would not affect front line services, but that is clearly not the case."

Cllr Millington has written to Essex County Council's cabinet member for libraries, County Councillor Iris Pummell, to object to the loss of service from local libraries and ask why councillors and library users were not consulted.