FINES for overdue books borrowed from Wyre Forest libraries by children aged under 13 have been scrapped in a Worcestershire-wide initiative to encourage more reading among youngsters.
The fines were dropped from Monday although additional loan charges still apply for audio-visual material.
"By scrapping overdue book fines for children we can, hopefully, encourage more to visit their library and borrow a good read," said Worcestershire County Council's cabinet member for cultural services, councillor Adrian Hardman.
"Fines were introduced to ensure popular books were available more often but their effect now is to discourage children who, obviously, don't have an income of their own. Fines also discourage those families on low incomes."
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