WHEN Darlington Borough Council unveiled a cost-cutting programme of unprecedented scope in February the closure of the town's magnificent Crown Street library looked to be a foregone conclusion.

Three months later there is renewed hope that the library - and its satellite branch in nearby Cockerton - may not just be spared the axe, but enhanced and extended.

All credit to Darlington for Culture for not only coming up with an alternative proposal, but one which foresees an exciting future for the town's much-loved library service.

Creating a Charitable Incorporated Organisation would give local people a say in how their libraries are run in partnership with the council - what better example could there be of David Cameron's so-called Big Society?

The Northern Echo has always been sympathetic to the council's situation, and we acknowledge that councillors have some very difficult decisions to make, but it is clear that the people of Darlington do not want to lose their libraries.

They do not want the books moved to a sports centre, archives dispersed around the town and the local studies department decimated.

More than 6,000 people have already signed our petition calling for a rethink on the library service. Councillors owe it to each and everyone of them to take these proposals seriously.

If that means postponing a final decision on the service's fate - due next month - then so be it.

Darlington for Culture has risen to the challenge to find a way forward and the ball is in the council's court.

It would be an insult to the volunteers who have worked so hard on it to cast the plan aside without doing everything possible to make it work.