Prince Charles visited Princetown yesterday, and is pictured inspecting plans for a new library. Princetown has a population of around 750 permanent residents. It is Duchy of Cornwall land and owned by the Prince,, and plans are under way to redevelop parts of the town, including a new village centre and a youth centre. The village centre would house a new village hall, meeting rooms, a doctor's surgery, a children's playgroup and a brand new library. The present Princetown library ranks 50th in the Devon County Council league table. This is close to the bottom of the league – Devon has only 56 libraries. The libraries scheduled for closure in the Mid-Devon Advertiser series area all perform rather better than Princetown: Shaldon is 47th, Ipplepen 43rd, Kingskerswell 38th and Kingsteignton 32nd. The population Princetown library serves is figured by the county council to be 1,087, whereas all our four closing libraries serve a greater number of people, from Shaldon's 1,762 to Kingsteignton's 10,981. We are, of course, delighted that Princetown may gain a new library. But if only Devon County Council considered it worth investing in new libraries for other rural areas. Or even keeping the old libraries open.
