A FALMOUTH schoolboy has handed over a 6,000 signature petition to the chair of Cornwall Council protesting at cuts to Falmouth Library service.

Leon Remphry, a ten-year-old pupil at King Charles School, hopes to ask Cornwall councillors to reconsider cuts to library services at their next meeting on September 23.

Leon will have the opportunity to address councillors after he and his friends collected over 6,000 signatures on a petition to save local library services.

Leon met council chairman John Wood at New County Hall, Truro, last Thursday to hand over a disc with more than 5,500 electronic signatures and a paper petition with over 1,000 signatures collected over the course of the summer holidays, along with letters of support from local authors, MP Sarah Newton, and Doreen Pinfold, the head of library and academic services at Penryn Campus.

Falmouth Packet:

Leon said: “It feels really brilliant that all the effort I’ve made over the last week, all the politics and speaking to councillors has paid off.

“I hope they verify the signatures quickly for me to talk to the meeting on September 24.”

The council will have to verify all of the signatures on the petition before it can be taken on to the next stage, which is a 15 minute debate at the next full meeting on September 23, at which Leon will be invited to speak. If the verification has not been completed by that date, the debate will take place at the following meeting.

Leon hopes that if he is successful with Cornwall Council, he can take the fight to Westminster and argue against library cuts that are happening nationwide.

He said: “I hope that when I get to the meeting I can at least force them to reconsider their decision.

“Then my next objective is Parliament, because apparently the cuts to libraries are nationwide, so I’d like to petition them.”