More than 100 turn up to Brent anti-library cuts meeting

Samantha Warrington, 43, of Carlton Avenue East, Wembley, said: "The mood is very buoyant. People are so supportive.

"They want to take this fight forward in whatever way they can and they are grateful for what we have done so far, and we talked about what would happen if we don't get leave to appeal.

"We're still waiting for the Supreme Court to say whether it will give us leave to appeal the Court of Appeal decision and that looks to be coming next week when it will be writing to our solicitor, John Halford at Bindmans."

One option considered by attendees to the meeting at 7.30pm on Tuesday at St Erconwald's Church in Carlton Avenue East is to continue lobbying culture minister Jeremy Hunt to use his ministerial powers to order an inquiry into whether Brent Council has failed in its legal duty to provide "a comprehensive and efficient library service" as required under Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964.

Protestors have yet to hear whether Mr Hunt will do so even though more than 12,000 residents have registered a complaint.

"We're considering further letters and further petitions as we have had no decision," said Ms Warrington. "It's not a very satisfactory situation as we have been writing for a year and the criteria seems completely arbitary."

Audience members praised Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, for dropping by the meeting in between House of Commons votes.

Ms Warrington said: "It was pretty good of him to rush across London just to spend literally 15 minutes with us to hear what people had to say."