EDUCATION chiefs hope they will soon be able to reveal more details of a bid by the Manx Educational Foundation to save the Family and Mobile Libraries.
In April, the Manx Educational Foundation announced the libraries, earmarked for closure by the Department of Education and Children, had reached a ‘provisional agreement’ with the department after weeks of planning.
Education Minister Peter Karran MHK said: ‘We are still negotiating [with the Manx Educational Foundation] at this present time.
‘I’m hoping we will have a meeting with the CoMin [Council of Ministers] subcommittee on the library in the very near future. It’s very regrettable this facility had to be closed. It’s a matter of making hard decisions as far as ring fencing the key services of education.’
Director of Education Martin Barrow said negotiations were ‘now at a more advanced stage’, adding: ‘We have no reason to believe it won’t be successful but we won’t go into detail at the moment.’
It was announced online gaming company PokerStars had committed to fund the libraries for three years to safeguard all employees and maintain the current level of service and fee structure.
