A 'peaceful protest' took place at Narberth Library this week after campaigners set up a petition to try and prevent a reduction to the facility's hours.

The Friends of Narberth Library urged protesters to unite and 'join the sit in, save the service', to highlight a 20 per cent cut in hours at the library, which was approved by Pembrokeshire County Council's cabinet earlier in the year, which now sees the facility closed on a Wednesday.

A post on the Friends of Narberth Facebook page by group co-ordinator, Lisa Taylor, following the protest on Tuesday, stated: "Thank you so much to all the people who supported the campaign yesterday - it may be that we keep it open on a Wednesday and run it with volunteers, though not ideal as the librarian there is an amazing, informative and caring, skilled person.

"Surely the money can be found from somewhere, especially given that it seems so much money has been wasted by the council of late."

A spokesperson for the county council issued the following statement on the matter: "As the local authority, we recognise that many people are as passionate about their local library services - as are we.

"Nobody wants to see services reduced, but the reality is that the council is forced to make very difficult decisions in light of unprecedented funding cuts.

"In many other parts of Wales, libraries are being closed, but we have not gone down that route in Pembrokeshire.

"We consulted widely with library users on a proposal to reduce the opening hours across all of our static libraries.

"In the case of Narberth, the proposal was to reduce from 16 to 11 hours per week. 

"The feedback we received indicated concern about the loss of late afternoon opening and we took that on board by protecting the Tuesday opening hours by keeping a 6 pm closure time instead of the proposed 4 pm.

"We also contacted all the relevant city, town and community councils to give them an opportunity to contribute financially to the running of their local library in order to prevent the reductions from taking place.

"In some communities, such as St. Davids and Newport, the local councils agreed to make a contribution and the opening hours were protected as a result.

"Unfortunately, we did not receive a response from Narberth Town Council. However, if there is a way of increasing our opening hours in the future, perhaps - with the aid of the local community - it is something we can explore.

"With that in mind, we will be commencing an extensive engagement exercise with users and potential users of our services over the coming months to better understand their needs and to seek their views on how we can best minimise the impact on libraries of further budget pressures," they added.