TWO leading Dorset writers have thrown their weight behind Dorset’s threatened Libraries as campaigners prepare to fight their cause again.

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and Minette Walters have written to Dorset County Council asking them to save nine libraries faced with losing funding ahead of a crunch meeting this week.

Councillors will be asked to reconsider their decision to withdraw funding from nine of its libraries when the full council meets on Thursday.

A previous vote in July saw the decision to remove the libraries from the council’s core network passed by a single vote.

Under council procedures a standing order signed by 10 Liberal Democrat councillors has forced a crucial second vote.

And campaigners fighting to save the libraries at Burton Bradstock, Charmouth, Chickerell, Corfe Castle, Colehill, Portland Underhill, Puddletown, Stalbridge and Wool have received a boost from the high profile Dorset residents ahead of Thursday’s meeting.

Lord Fellowes of West Stafford, who is a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, wrote: “I have it from the very top of the party that if savings can be achieved without the loss of libraries, nobody will be happier than they.

“The fact that both Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs in Dorset support the movement to save the county’s libraries is surely a powerful argument for the truth of this.”

Mrs Walters said: “Bearing in mind how close the vote was and how important community meeting places are to rural dwellers, particularly the elderly and infirm who do not find it easy to travel to towns, can I beg you and your colleagues to think very hard before you condemn your constituents to a life without one of the true great pleasures – a book.’ Chairman of Ad Lib (the Association of Friends of Dorset Libraries) Graham Lee said his organisation was encouraged by the valuable support from the two authors.

He added that he hoped to see library users who were unhappy at the prospect of losing their libraries, and others who were not directly affected but disagreed with the decision, gathering at County Hall ahead of the meeting on Thursday morning to make their feelings known.