UK Firefighters to the Rescue -- of Library Books

FIRE chiefs have revealed a burning desire to help cash-strapped libraries by moving books into their stations.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service is considering a groundbreaking' plan to host collections in its buildings.

The service wants to help Manchester council, which plans to shut and relocate six libraries as part of 12m cuts to leisure services, find a solution by March.

Currently the book collections at five libraries New Moston, Burnage, Northenden, Fallowfield and Miles Platting have nowhere to go after closure, although the council is very confident' homes will be found soon.

County fire officer Steve McGuirk contacted the council when it unveiled its latest cuts plan last month.

It is unclear in which parts of Manchester the plan could work but fire authority chairman Dave Acton said the service is happy to help.

He said: We've discussed potentially using fire stations as library book collection and drop-off points as our fire stations are already open to and part of the communities they serve this would also give us the option to integrate our fire safety work and reach out to more members of the public.

Clearly we are just discussing the idea at the moment and we would need to do a lot of work if we're going to use fire stations in this way.

However, I do think an initiative such as this could be groundbreaking and exciting in terms of its potential.

Coun Sue Murphy, deputy leader of Manchester council, said: We know the good work the fire service do in the community and are in active discussions with them, and a range of other partner organisations, about where community book collections could be located. We are confident that we will be able to bring forward some innovative proposals. 

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