MALDON will lose more than half of its mobile libraries as Essex County Council cut back the service.

Residents in the district are amongst the most regular users of the facilities, however 28 of the district’s 50 mobile library stops will be scrapped as part of an £80,000 saving for the council.

The results of a public consultation will see 334 mobile library stops across the county scrapped. Seven of the council’s nine mobile library vehicles will also be cancelled.

New recommendations, approved by the council, mean any mobile library stop within 1.5 miles of a library building will be dropped, as will stops with an average number of visitors of one or fewer.

The visits will now take place once every three weeks rather than every two, with stops lasting 30 minutes each instead of 20 minutes.

There will also be limits placed meaning there will be no more than one stop per community.

As a result 28 stops in the Maldon district will be scrapped, and Maldon, Great Totham, Woodham Walter, Dengie and Tiptree will be left without any stops at all.

Responding to the consultation, 45 per cent of residents in the district said they would not be able to access a library without their mobile library stop.

Councillor Sue Barker, cabinet member for culture communities and customers at Essex County Council, said: “We’ve listened to what people told us and as a result, changed some of our original proposals.

“We changed our proposals on how far mobile library stops should be away from library buildings, reducing the distance from two miles, to 1.5 miles.

“In the future, our mobile libraries will visit 213 locations over a three-week cycle. This is a reduction from the current 557 stops, but means the service will be viable and ends the current situation where at some stops, there have been no visitors at all for six months or more.”

The changes will be rolled out in April.