A petition of over 2,000 signatures calling for Surrey’s Performing Arts Library to be saved has been presented to a meeting of Surrey County Council’s Cabinet. The petition, which was launched by Liberal Democrat County Councillors in September, was handed in by Ges Ray, Vice-Chair of the Leith Hill Music Festival.
Recommendations as to the future of the service will be proposed by the Communities Select Committee at their meeting in February 2018 with a final decision taken by the Council’s Cabinet in March.
The Library, which is currently based near Dorking at Denbies Wine Estate, houses a truly unique collection of music, theatre, orchestral and dance materials available for public loan. It also holds a specialist Vaughan Williams collection and permanent display covering the life and works of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), commemorating his strong links with the area where he lived and where he composed some of his most important pieces.
Ges Ray said, “With music scores sourced through the Surrey Performing Library, The Leith Hill Musical Festival reaches some 3,000 singers, performers and audience members each year in the Dorking Halls alone, let alone the many thousands of users across the county and beyond. If this unique jewel of a collection is dispersed now, it will effectively be lost.”
Whilst we are pleased that the County Council appears to have ruled out the closure of the service as a result of the campaign to save the library, the County Council is still considering breaking this collection up amongst a number of libraries – an action which would be tantamount to closure.
We believe that what is needed is time to allow the Performing Arts Library and its supporters to come up with a workable and viable financial model which secures its future going forward and we will continue to fight and protect the Performing Arts Library until a viable option can be developed to retain it. We further believe that it would be very foolish to close a service which has provided such enjoyment to audiences across Surrey and beyond.