LIBRARIES across Southampton will be shut today as staff strike over council plans to replace librarians with volunteers.

There will be picket lines outside Portswood Library, Bitterne Library, Woolston Library, Shirley Library and the city’s Central Library.

The council said it expected to open Central Library from 10am to 4pm but all other libraries will be closed as most staff join the one-day walkout. Council bosses called the move “unjustified”.

Members of the powerful Unison union voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action in a postal ballot.

Further strikes could follow and a policy of non-cooperation with volunteer recruits will be adopted.

Library staff are protesting at the Conservative-controlled council’s plans to scrap funding for six librarians and replace them with volunteers as well as closing Millbrook Library.

Southampton Labour MPs John Denham and Alan Whitehead will attend a lunch-time rally at Central Library with councillors and librarians from Southamp-ton University and Southampton Solent University.

Three thousand delegates at a Unison meeting in Bournemouth last week backed the strike, the first of its kind in the country.

Unison branch secretary Mike Tucker said: “The vast majority of Southampton librarians will be on strike. They are taking this action to defend the library service and to stop Conservative councillors destroying a first- class public service.”

Mr Whitehead, MP for Southampton Test, accused the Tories of “stealth closures” by keeping the buildings but “cutting the quality of the service inside”.

Itchen MP John Denham added: “We all accept tough decisions and efficiency savings have to be made. But the Tories are making a choice to cut the things that matter most to the local community, while protecting their own pet projects.”

Councillor John Hannides, Cabinet member for leisure, culture and heritage said he “regretted” the decision by staff to strike.

He said the council was trying to modernise its libraries with self-checkout technology as the “traditional staffing model was no longer needed in the 21st century.”

He said: “The premise on which the union has called their strike is unjustified. There are no redundancies and there are no library closures.”

He said Millbrook Library in Cumbrian Way was being bulldozed as part of a regeneration project and could be replaced following a review of other local sites and consultation with residents.