SUPPORTERS of Dorset’s libraries vowed to continue their fight but have raised fears for the future of their community facilities.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council’s spokesman for equality, diversity and social cohesion Kate Wheller was at the meeting to fight the case of Portland Underhill Library.

After the vote she said: “I think Underhill Library’s days are numbered.

“I will do everything I can to support them but I’m really worried about them.”

Chairman of the Friends of Puddletown Library Mike Chaney said there were a committed group of local residents who would be looking into the council’s offer to take up the library but it required significant contributions both in terms of volunteer time and money.

He said: “We will need at least twice as many volunteers as we have got already, possibly three times and on top of them we have got to find a sum of money.”

Fellow Puddletown Library supporter and local vicar Roy Bennett added: “We need to be a little bit clearer about what the county council is offering as it is by no means clear.”

David Smith, who turned up to the protest and meeting with a group of supporters for Wool library, said: “The community will have to look at the offer and decide whether it can run with it.

“It could well end in the closure route.”

In the build up to the meeting the Ad Lib group refused to rule out a legal challenge to any decision to withdraw funding to libraries following legal victories on the issue in other areas of the country.

Ad Lib chairman Graham Lee said after the meeting: “We are obviously very disappointed with the decision but it is something that we will need to reflect on.”