A GLOUCESTERSHIRE county councillor has spoken out about the "unenviable" task of making library cuts and defended Lechlade’s new community run service as a "very generous package".

As another challenge to the revised library strategy was rejected at Shire Hall last week, Conservative councillor for Fairford Ray Theodoulou (pictured) told the Standard that the decision to hand seven of the county’s facilities over to volunteers was not made lightly.

He said: "The impression given by some people in Lechlade is the county council have thrown the libraries to the wolves and that’s far from the truth."

Cllr Theodoulou said the council had been forced to make savings of £114m and was in the unenviable position of deciding which services needed to be prioritised and which should be cut back.

He added that because the county council had chosen to spend over half of its £430m budget on the elderly and vulnerable young, services such as libraries, buses and youth facilities had to suffer.

"The county council is faced with these awful choices and we’ve got to make them," he said.

However, Cllr Theodoulou insisted that despite the library cutbacks Lechlade had negotiated a great deal for their volunteer-run service.

The facility will be leased on a peppercorn rent and will continue to benefit from the county council’s library network and books.

Additional computers are to be installed and the building will have a £20,000 revamp to improve existing damp conditions.

In addition GCC has pledged a £10,000 revenue grant and a council library staff member for three hours a week.

"So what we’ve offered to them is a very generous package," he said. "There are volunteers who are quite willing so there’s absolutely no reason at all that this shouldn’t be a success."

Lechlade town and district councillor Sue Coakley admitted the package was substantially better than the original proposal, which did not even guarantee a stock of books. But she disputed that it was a ‘generous’ package for Lechlade because it was being funded by residents’ council taxes.

And she added: "Volunteers are only taking over the library because they have been left with no other option."

Cllr Theodoulou said that should the volunteer scheme fail he believed there was an established charity waiting in the wings, which had offered to run the county’s community libraries if they were in danger of closing.