LIBRARIES in the New Forest will be hit by strike action today and tomorrow.

Staff belonging to the union Unison throughout Hampshire are withdrawing their labour in protest over £1.25 million cuts in the service and a reduction of £25,000 in the book fund.

Insiders say that the planned Library restructuring will mean 27 professional posts will be cut - more than a third of those employed by the county - and a further 17 staff will have their jobs altered, with a resultant drastic cut in salaries.

They say they are incensed that their professional experience and knowledge is apparently so little regarded by their employers that Cllr Margaret Snaith, the county council's executive member for recreation and heritage, said recently that the public "would not notice the difference" if the cuts were effected.

Yesterday Cllr Snaith said: "It is disappointing Unison have felt the need to call a strike.

"We will endeavour to maintain a service in all of our 54 libraries.

"The potential closures of libraries is exactly what we are trying to avoid.

"It has been a very difficult budget process and the library service has to live within its means.

"When we announced the restructure, which we had to do to reduce costs, we explained we would do everything we could to minimise the need for any compulsory redundancies and, following a request for voluntary redundancies, we are confident that no compulsory redundancies will be required.

"It is therefore disappointing that while we are making every effort to keep our libraries open and refrain from taking further sums of money from the materials fund during this difficult financial period, we are now being faced with possible closures owing to strike action.

"I would like to apologise for any disruption library users may experience during the strike and hope that the bulk of our staff will continue to support us as we go through this period of change."

Fordingbridge and New Milton libraries will be closed due to strike action today (Thursday) and tomorrow and Lymington will only be open this afternoon. Ringwood library may remain open today, although so far this has not been confirmed.

Julie Murdoch, Unison local government branch secretary at Winchester said: "The issues are the threat of a lot of redundancies and the de-professionalisation of the library service in Hampshire."