MORE than 900 people have had their say over savage cuts to Worcestershire's mobile library service - with 74 per cent saying they would use it less or not at all.

Your Worcester News can reveal how the council is being put under pressure to perform a u-turn on deleting so many stops amid concern of the impact it will have on pensioners.

From February the number of mobile library stops will reduce from 420 to 267, a 38 per cent reduction.

There are 1,200 regular users of the service and after a consultation, around 900 of them responded, with 41 per cent stating they would not use it "at all" and 33 per cent saying they'd "use it less".

The findings have led to County Hall's main watchdog, the overview, performance and scrutiny board (OSPB), saying it will revisit its investigation in April to see how the cuts have impacted.

A majority of the users either over 55 or pensioners, with the cuts aimed at saving £100,000 a year.

Councillor Chris Bloore, speaking during an OSPB meeting, who led the investigation into it, said: "The consultation had well over 900 responses, which is phenomenal, but there were hard facts in there that we can't run away from.

"Those results are pretty startling, a big change is being made to this service in February which will affect a lot of people - we will have to look at this again in March or April, see where we are and maybe go back on it.

"It's disappointing that we are losing all these stops (153 in total).

"We had a very vigorous debate (during the investigation) and these consultation figures present a worrying picture.

"I think we could be at a 'stepping off the cliff' moment in February - a significant amount of those who replied were over 65."

During the meeting yesterday Councillor Paul Denham read out a letter from former relief mobile library driver Phillip Gromski, who was employed at County Hall for 29 years.

Mr Gromski's letter said over the years the service had already suffered "dramatic changes" which had "upset and alienated" customers.

The board agreed to let Cllr Bloore revisit the policy in April and report back on it then.

Under the changes instead of every three weeks, the mobile bus will visit each area once every four or five weeks.

The existing four vehicles are being reduced to one and 48 towns and villages will no longer get any mobile library service, although 175 still will.

The vehicles currently stop for 15 minutes in each location for people to drop off and collect books.

The council's Conservative leadership insists it is beefing up the 'at home' library service, including recruiting 40 volunteers, so people who are unable to reach the new bus can get books dropped off at their home, giving everyone some kind of access.

On top of that, around 40 stops which were deemed ‘at risk’ during the consultation have been saved, including Pinvin, Castlemorton, Upper Broadheath, Keepers Close in Hanley Swan and Hallow.

The new vehicle is also being fitted with Wi-Fi and meeting room space.

Investigations are also taking place with a view to increasing the number of ‘community collection points’ – where books are left in specific locations for people to pick-up outside of county libraries – from the current 200 to around 224.

The Tory administration is looking to save around £25 million a year due to unprecedented reductions in central Government funding and demographic pressures.

During the meeting yesterday Cllr Bloore praised Councillor Lucy Hodgson, the cabinet member overseeing the changes, for her efforts to help with the review and the constant dialogue in recent weeks.

Despite the service being under huge pressure to make savings no libraries have closed down in Worcestershire.