HOPE has been offered to Dorset’s 20 under-threat libraries after councillors decided to look at ways of making £800,000 of savings elsewhere.

They voted for a resolution to consider ideas proposed by campaign group Ad Lib that could keep all 20 libraries open.

The group suggests cutting opening hours of all libraries by 10 per cent, reducing headquarters staff by the same amount and halving the money spent on books.

But councillors at the full council meeting of Dorset County Council also voted to proceed with a three-month consultation on a proposal to hand over the libraries to community groups.

Funding for these libraries would then be withdrawn in 2012 if enough volunteers are not available to run them.

Library campaigners filled the council chamber’s upper tier and roundly applauded the second resolution, which was proposed by Councillor Geoffrey Brierley and unanimously voted for.

Coun Brierley said: “If you look at this petition, you’ll see that there’s very strong feeling about these libraries. Without books being available from the county council, how on earth will we survive? We need books and we need computers.

“I propose that the libraries service examine ways in which the 20 threatened libraries can be supported by making savings elsewhere in the library system.”

Councillor Hilary Cox, cabinet member for the environment, said Ad Lib’s proposals were more ‘salami slicing’. “Suggesting we do more salami slicing of our staff, books and hours and waiting for things to get better financially does not seem like the right way forward,” she said.

“What’s the good of a library if it’s hardly open?”

She added that there are 89,000 active library users out of a population of 480,000 in Dorset.

Speaking after the meeting, Ad Lib spokesman Mike Chaney, of Puddletown, said the two-hour debate offered some hope to library campaigners.

He added: “There’s a chink of hope for us now and a bit of light. We are delighted with the support Coun Brierley gave us – he saved the day.

“However, the two resolutions seem to be contradictory. They are saying we are taking 20 libraries away and when that happens do we want to take over the library?

“How can you answer that question if the Policy Development Panel is also asked questions on how to find ways of keeping the library open?”

Supporters of Littlemoor Library also spoke at the meeting and said they relied on the facility to improve literacy levels in the community.

Lodmoor councillor Brian Ellis said: “There is a social deprivation issue. Children have said that they see Littlemoor Library as a place of sanctuary, a place they can go to in somewhat chaotic lives.”

Pamela Gaull, of the Park District, Weymouth, said: “I’m surprised by that fact that they are giving specific consideration to Littlemoor.”

Littlemoor resident Peter Ruffell said: “We want to tell people to get involved in the consultation and to keep using the library before they lose it.”

A final decision will be made by the council in July.