DORSET County Council has sunk to fighting dirty in its determination to close 60 per cent of its libraries.

The council’s libraries manager has just ruled that those campaigning against this planned carnage may not put petitions in any of “her” libraries.

And we council-tax payers quaintly thought they were “our” libraries.

What an exquisite irony it is that, in her argument for these closures, Dorset’s Director of Adult and Community Services tells us that her vision for “our” libraries is that they should foster “a love of knowledge to enhance lives and build communities”.

As long, it seems, as any knowledge we acquire in libraries has been approved by council bosses.

They can display their own propaganda, telling us how vital it is that our libraries be closed. But we can’t be allowed to point out that their policies will wreck communities, not build them.

Vision is OK, it seems, as long as it’s their vision - not ours.

MIKE CHANEY, Spokesman for Ad Lib (association of friends of Dorset libraries) and chairman of Puddletown Library’s friends