I waited with interest to read the decisions made as to where the allegedly necessary cuts in services would come in Blackburn.

When the details were revealed I, along with many, others, was very pleased to see that there were no plans to close libraries in the borough.

My local, Mill Hill, library, though only very small, was saved and safe.

Perhaps experience should have warned me about a ‘sting-in-the-tail’.

A visit to the central library put me in touch with reality. I found a notice warning all library members of the new charges to be introduced.

The ones which concerned me were those relating to the reservation or purchase of books not in stock at Mill Hill.

The old charge was 25p for a book which is in the stock of the library at whatever branch and 31p plus the same 25p if a book had to be obtained from outside the borough or actually bought in.

These have been doubled.

So the £2.50 charge can now not be cost effective to a borrower at times if the cost of buying a paperback book is less than that.

The final barb is that pensioners will have to pay overdue book charges.. not at the full adult rate, but still 6p per book, per day. Failing memories, immobility, bad weather etc can now go hang.

I always thought that libraries were trying to show an increase in borrowing.

This is a sure way to alienate sections of their membership, namely the old and infirm.

Accepting that cuts are necessary after Labour’s profligacy, I fear that this snaps of hitting at the most vulnerable for squalid political reasons.

William Woodford, Livesey.