A judicial review into plans to close libraries across Somerset and Gloucestershire has concluded today.

The three-day hearing at the High Court in Birmingham was brought about by campaigners fighting the proposals in the two counties.

Members of Watchet Library Friends have been attending the hearing in the hope that the outcome will see their library saved from Somerset County Council’s plan to withdraw its funding along with ten other libraries across the county.

Jan Simpson-Scott, of Watchet Library Friends, said: “We have every confidence in our barrister and with the people of Watchet behind us, we firmly believe that we’ve done the best we could.”

Six of the 11 libraries were set to close on October 1 and five on April 1 next year, with the six mobile libraries already cut back to two from August 2011.

In July, Public Interest Lawyers, who are representing a library user in Watchet as a test case for all of Somerset, managed to obtain an interim injunction stopping all closures pending the full judicial review hearing later this month.