Library cuts ‘hurt young’
CHILDREN'S learning will suffer if spending cuts lead to library closures, writer Alan Bennett warned yesterday.
The playwright led a group of leading literary figures warning of the effects of slashing library funding.
After meeting the Duchess of Cornwall at a Clarence House reception, Bennett said of the possible closures: “You’re injuring a child, you’re hindering it from learning to read and you’re taking away something of the wonderfulness of childhood. We’ll see the effect in 10 to 15 years’ time, when you’ll have a generation of children reading later than they should.”
His concerns were echoed by others at the reception including Tom Stoppard and Jacqueline Wilson. Children’s writer Anne Fine added: “It’s going to be disastrous. Children need easy access to libraries.”
Their host Camilla – patron of the National Literacy Trust – said she firmly believed in the importance of “igniting a passion for reading in the next generation”.