PARENTS and children are appealing for volunteers to step forward in a bid to save Woodley and Earley’s remaining toy library.

Current volunteers at the Lend and Play Toy Library next to the Ambleside Centre, in Woodley, have been forced to reduce its opening hours, and could close it all together if they are not given more help.

The library, which is “cherished” as a treasure chest of goodies, has been running for eight years and will receive a £1,000 grant from Woodley Town Council in the 2015/16 financial year –the same amount which was donated in 2014/15.

Parents come to rent toys for as little as 50p for their children and popular items include crawling tents, crocodile seesaws, and a range of outdoor push-a-long cars, board games and puzzles.

Nicolette Evans, from Fairview Avenue, Earley, a committee member who has been bringing her two daughters to the library for five years, believes it offers a solution for parents living on a tight budget.

She said: “It’s a very important resource. It means that I don’t have to spend money on toys that will only be played with a few times or that I don’t have space for.

“Children grow out of toys and by using lots of different ones, pick up different skillsets.

“The Woodley grants are paying for marketing and new toys — we’re trying to keep up with what children like, such as the Leap Frog electronic toys.”

She said they used to get funding from Wokingham Borough Council, but that stopped.

Mrs Evans added: “Now we’re working with what we’ve saved and what members pay, and that goes towards the rent. Once people come through the doors, they keep coming back. It’s just getting them here at first that’s the hard bit.”

The library has around 150 active members at present, but is still looking for a secretary and vice-chair, and this week its committee decided to reduce its four weekly sessions down to two.

From Sunday, the library will open its doors on Wednesday afternoons, from 2.30pm to 8pm, and Saturday mornings from 10am to midday.

Fellow mum Julie Barnes, who travels from Twyford to use the library, said “it would be a travesty” if it closed and added: “I’ve used it regularly for my toddler and will be relying on it for toys to keep my child occupied and happy when my new baby arrives.”

Mrs Evans is inviting anybody interested in helping to attend the library committee’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, March 25, at the centre from 7.30pm.