BREAKING NEWS: Library opening hours slashed across Northamptonshire hours after plans to shut 21 were approved

Staff at libraries cross he county have been told that opening will be cut at a series of meetings today.

A council spokeswoman said the move has been taken as part of the drastic Section 114 emergency spending controls put in place at County Hall earlier this month.

The change in opening hours will differ depending on the library.

The medium-sized facility at Duston, which is not one of the 21 due to be closed completely, has had its opening hours slashed to just one day, staff learned today.

A spokesman for the Please Support Duston Library group said the opening hours change will "make the service they offer poorer."

"It is quite a big library. When they cut the Friday service that was bad enough," he said.

"People are just not going to bother going there."

Brackley Library will now only open on a Tuesday, according to reports on Twitter.

But the county council says library users need to head to their local facilities to find out the new opening hours.

A spokesman for the council said: “The Section 114 spending controls currently in place restrict expenditure on recruitment, temporary staff and overtime for existing staff.

“This has a direct result on our ability to keep libraries open and so we are having to operate a heavily reduced timetable.

“Further information is available from your local library.”