STOP buying so many books – that’s the surprise message from campaigners fighting cuts to 20 of Dorset’s ‘community libraries’.

Ad Lib, the group protesting against Dorset County council’s proposals to save £800,000 from the library budget, has discovered there are more books than shelf space, and around £250,000 will be spent over the next year.

Chairman Graham Lee said: “In these difficult times we think that it is just not necessary to spend so much and we are book lovers.

“We accept that Dorset always has been generous in what it spends on books and in normal circumstances we welcome that. But these aren’t normal times.

“If cuts have to be made the county would be better off with fewer books than fewer libraries.”

Questionnaires are available in all libraries or can be downloaded from Dorsetforyou.co.uk/libraries.

A decision will be made in July.