I AM sure there are plenty who would take issue with Allan Friswell's comments about libraries being businesses – Libraries barely used (Keighley News, April 27).

We have an incumbent Government that is destroying local communities with its ill-fated mantra that running a country is like running a household budget.

We have seen schools having to cut teachers (imagine that), community centres closing down, local councils being barred from running local bus services and all the while the national debt grows and grows and grows.

The likes of libraries, post offices, rural bus services and schools are not businesses that are there to make money. They are to keep communities alive and vibrant, rather than becoming dormitory towns.

His idea that libraries are no more than shelves of books is an insult to those who visit them to use a computer, to apply for a job or just for interaction with someone else.

I doubt councils wished to work with local community groups, but this has been forced upon them by a Government that seems to have little idea about how to govern.

I shudder to imagine what Mr Friswell thinks about other local services, which may have to be subsidised a little to make sure those who need them do not feel even more isolated.

ANTONY SILSON

Skipton Road, Keighley