TONIGHT, there will not be silence in the library.

At 7pm, a Question Time-style debate will be held at Bolton Central Library lecture theatre as politicians and campaigners come head to head to discuss the town’s underthreat libraries.

Bolton Council leader Cllr Cliff Morris, Tory chief Cllr John Walsh, deputy Liberal Democrat leader David Wilkinson, Alan Johnson of the Green Party, Ian McHugh of Save Bolton’s Libraries and a speaker from UNISON will all be on the panel. The debate will be chaired by The Bolton News’ deputy editor Lynn Ashwell.

Libraries at Astley Bridge, Highfield, Oxford Grove, Heaton and Castle Hill, have been earmarked for closure in a bid to save £400,000.

And while campaigners have said they recognise the council has to make £60m savings in four years because of cuts in government grants, they believe libraries should be protected.

Two groups hoping to get answers from the meeting tonight will be a nursery group and a reading group who both use Heaton Library.

Nursery nurse Alison Townsend of St Thomas of Canterbury Nursery brings youngsters to the library at least once a week.

She said: “It is really important to us. It is within easy reach and the children love coming here and looking at different books.

“They learn so much from their visits. I would urge Bolton Council to re-think their plans.”

The Heaton Reading Group has been meeting at the library once a month for the last six years. It regularly invites authors and attracts between 20 to 30 readers.

Kathryn Foster, group organiser, said: “We are all passionate supporters of the library and we’d love to be able to stay here.

“The group members don’t just meet here, we are all library members and we all use the library. We’ll be very disappointed if it closes but we’ve not given up hope.”

Julie Brick, aged 44, of Heaton, part of the Save Bolton Libraries campaign, said the library was the only real community venue in the area.

“You can see from the nursery group in one room and the reading group in the other that it is a well used library,” she added.

● Tonight doors open to the meeting in the library in Le Mans Crescent at 6.30pm.

People will be asked to submit questions their questions for the panel, prior to the debate.

Follow the debate live on Twitter @TheBoltonNews or at theboltonnews.

co.uk