THE Government is trying to destroy the social fabric of the country, a council leader claimed yesterday, as his cash-strapped authority cut opening hours at 38 public libraries.

Simon Henig, Labour leader of Durham County Council, said the coalition was “picking up where Mrs Thatcher left off” and urged Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors to oppose spending cuts.

He was speaking at County Hall, Durham, as his cabinet, facing cuts of nearly £190m, agreed to reduce opening times to 36 hours a week at 11 town centre libraries and 20 hours a week at 27 community branches. Mobile library services will also be reduced in a bid to save nearly £1.5m.

But Coun Henig said: “We wouldn’t be doing this at all if it wasn’t for the big cuts from Government.

“If local councillors of the coalition parties really want to oppose these cuts, they need to do so directly.

“This Government is picking up where Mrs Thatcher left off in trying to destroy the social fabric of this country.”

Lib Dem councillor Owen Temple accused the Labour cabinet of agreeing what was “politically palatable”, rather than trying to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the library service.

The division of libraries into the town centre and community categories was very crude, he said.

Lib Dem Mamie Simmons said no council should lose more than half its hours.

Town centre libraries should be cut to 34 hours, allowing the three biggest community branches, Newton Hall, Belmont and Ferryhill, to open for 27 hours, she said.

Ken Holroyd, a Lib Dem councillor for Belmont, said: “Why aren’t the cuts proportional to the usage of the libraries? Why have local views not been taken into consideration?

“I’m at a loss to understand the categorisation of libraries as town centres or communities.”

Councillor Maria Plews, the Labour cabinet member for leisure, libraries and lifelong learning, said opening hours had to be reduced to keep all 38 libraries open. The cuts will cost the equivalent of 20 fulltime jobs.

People will now be invited to help decide the precise opening hours of their library and how the reduced mobile library service will operate.