SOME of Hampshire's libraries face an uncertain future with a major review set to be launched.

And street lights could be dimmed for longer and some household recycling sites could close as part of separate cost-cutting measures being considered.

Consultation on both measures will be launched on Monday (Nov 2) after the council approved £98m of cuts with 454 jobs set to be axed in the next few years.

A report on reviewing the libraries says that the mobile service, which costs £360,000 a year, could be axed and replaced "with modern alternatives" from 2017.

It says that the service costs £360,000 a year and is used by just 2,230 people with demand declining and the vehicles coming to the end of their lives.

Options that will be considered will be "reviewing the future viability of static libraries, using an agreed set of criteria" while there could be an increased in trained volunteers "to support the work of paid library staff".

Each year until 2020 £500,000 will be used from the £2m book fund "to make our libraries modern and vibrant" and then it will be permanently reduced by £500,000 from 2020 onwards.

And in the county's highways department consultation will be launched about whether more street lights should be dimmed or even turned off between certain hours while grass cutting and weed killing along highways could also be reduced.

Consultation on the libraries review will run until January 16 while the highways proposals will run for six weeks from Monday.

Further details on consultation over changes to the household waste recycling centres will be announced later this year and could include the closure of some centres between certain times, or entirely.

The council also wants to explore charging for their use, although this would require asking the Government to change the law.

The council's executive member for culture, recreation and the countryside, Andrew Gibson, said: "We are reviewing our cost base and nothing is ruled out or ruled in, but I haven't got an agenda to push through the closure of any library.

"I want this to be a proper consultation. This isn't like we have a strategy and we just want it to be rubberstamped."