OUR local libraries are a treasure chest of shared wisdom and an oasis for calm, reflection and contemplation – a refuge for the community and inspiring the intellect of our young.

Are voters sufficiently aware of the risk of library closures right across the country?

These unnecessary attacks on local council spending and services are ideologically driven, and expose the Conservative Government’s disregard for community education and quality of life (with many hundreds of children’s centres also having closed since 2010). The figures are stark and scarcely believable in a wealthy, so-called civilised society.

Around 350 local libraries have been closed since 2010, with 8,000 library posts lost, including one quarter of paid posts; and according to BBC research, a further 111 library closures are planned for this year alone.

Let’s be clear. These shameful, philistine cuts are all about the creed of right-wing politics, and nothing to do with deficit reduction.

The Conservative Government has a stealthy and ill-disguised long-term plan to do away with most, if not all, of our publicly-run services – which would be a catastrophe for the quality of life of countless of our citizens.

“Private affluence and public squalor” (J K Galbraith) is what we’re now reduced to in the world’s fifth-richest country, where tax cuts (and tax avoidance) for the rich and unaccountable corporations increasingly take precedence over essential local services.

My first job was as a library assistant when I was just 15, and as a bookworm it was my idea of heaven – all that wonderful silence and the excitement of reading; and the local library is still one of my favourite places.

My daughters are the same – they enjoy visiting Stroud Library every week and I dare not tell them about the uncertainty surrounding the country’s libraries.

Voters with a social conscience and a love of their community will have the opportunity in May’s local elections to register a vote for parties other than the Conservatives, in order to register a protest against their attacks on local services.

For all those who wish to live in a county that is honest and cares about community values, I strongly urge them to do so.

I can assure voters that a local Labour council will do everything within our power to protect Stroud’s local libraries from this dishonourable assault on these talismans of a civilised society.

Skeena Rathor

Labour district council candidate for Stroud Central