WHEN Darlington Borough Council revealed its controversial budget proposals two months ago the document did not make for easy reading.

The authority needs to save £10.2m by 2020 on top of savings of £30m it has already achieved. In order to do that, it is planning an unprecedented round of spending cuts, redundancies and closures that will change the town forever.

Once the council has discharged its legal obligations it has around £2.5m for discretionary spending on services and facilities. Tough decisions are unavoidable.

One of the toughest has been to relinquish control of the town’s cherished Victorian covered market.

Although the council is not proposing to close the market, its future looks bleak unless a commercial operator can be found or the traders can find a way of taking the building off the authority’s hands.

So anything that makes the market an even more attractive commercial proposition has to be a good thing.

Next week officers councillors will meet to decide whether or not to spend £200,000 on essential repairs and upgrades to the market building as the search for a partner continues.

Critics will ask how the authority can find £200,000 to improve the indoor market at a time when it is slashing other services and hanging a ‘for sale’ sign on the town’s beloved Crown Street library.

But we prefer to look on the bright side: by spending a relatively modest amount of money the council will give itself the best possible chance of securing a good deal for the hard-working market traders and the town.

We also hope this display of enterprise might now be extended to the town’s libraries.

Campaigners fighting to save the Crown Street library are asking for more time to put together their proposals – we urge the council to listen to their entreaties.

If the indoor market and the central library are allowed to close they will be lost forever. The council must leave no stone unturned in the search for a saviour.