We're still waiting to hear what the budget will be for Powys County Council this year - but the chances are that libraries will once again be threatened with closure or shorter hours or fewer staff.
Because of the constant uncertainty, it was agreed at a HOWLS meeting last year to set up a CIC - a Community Interest Company, to safeguard the future of Hay Library as much as it is possible to do.
The website is now live, and can be found at HayPublicLibrary.org
The first objectives of the CIC are to negotiate a binding five year contract with Powys County Council and obtain security of tenure for Hay Library for those five years, up to 2025.
The County Council has already scheduled meetings for those negotiations to take place, and have said that they are seeking to forge partnerships, so this is a good start, but it has to happen this month, before the new budget comes out in February.
There is a new Facebook page called Hay Public Library CIC as well, and the organisers are urging everyone who is interested in continuing to have a library in Hay to sign up to their mailing list (yes, there was a mailing list for HOWLS, but they have to start from scratch - they can't just move people over from one list to the new one).
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