Libraries offer amnesty on overdue book fines

Libraries across Suffolk are offering an amnesty on fines due on 15,000 overdue items as part of a drive to encourage reading.

The county's library service said about 4,700 borrowers had overdue loans and some would have lost access to their accounts, so the amnesty would let them "wipe the slate clean".

It will be waiving fines or agreeing lower payments until the end of February for members who have run up significant charges. It comes during the National Year of Reading.

Suffolk Community Libraries' Krystal Vittles said: "The new year is a great time for a fresh start, so we wanted to kick off our Year of Reading by making it easier for more people to visit and use their local library."

She added it was important to make sure everyone had "free and easy access" to books.

The service said it currently had 15,000 overdue items, which were mostly books, and they included things that were only a few days late as well as items that were long overdue.

These account for less than 1% of the service's annual loans, with between 1.6 and 1.7 million items typically borrowed each year.

People were unable to use their library cards when they built up "significant fines" for overdue or lost books, the service said.

The National Year of Reading is an initiative by the Department for Education and National Literacy Trust to tackle a decline in reading.

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