Music makers across the north of England, and indeed more widely, are on tenterhooks as the countdown ticks away towards a vital meeting in Wakefield.

The Yorkshire Libraries and Information council is meeting on Thursday, 3 November, under intense pressure to reconsider its plan to close or disperse the biggest lending collection of music scores and play scripts in the UK.

You can read the essence of the story here, in this piece which is on the news section of the Guardian website, so I won't repeat it now. But I left out one important group which is convinced that a rethink has to happen – the country's amateur orchestras, chamber groups and bands.

Many thanks to Jennifer and John Moorhouse, respectively secretary and chairman of Todmorden Orchestra, for filling this gap. Jennifer emailed to say:

I was very pleased to read the article regarding the proposed closure of the YLI  Music and Drama service, but it makes no mention of orchestras, which is slightly misleading.  Amateur orchestras use the service as much as choirs or dramatic societies - and yes, Todmorden orchestra is one of them.  It has a huge collection of orchestral music - some of which is only available otherwise from the publishers which is charged per playing minute.  Try hiring a Mahler Symphony!

The response has been huge, and Making Music has been superb in rallying support at very short notice.  Let's hope the collection can be saved.

I then talked to John who added a bit more detail – specific to Tod but typical of hundreds of other orchestras and groups of musicians which use the service. He plays violin in the orchestra while Jennifer and their daughter Frances are both cellists.

He says:

We've got about four pieces out at the moment for our concert on Saturday week, 12 November. They include Vaughan Williams' London Symphony which isn't yet out of copyright and would cost us £350-£400 to borrow without the YLI. As it is, we get scores through them for about £30 along with excellent knowledgable service.

The library is run by really friendly, expert people and they deliver the music to our local library so it 's easy for us to pick up. Please reconsider! I'm sure others all over the country feel the same.

The full programme for the Todmorden Orchestra concert is here if you can get there. (If you don't know it, it's where all the real people went when they fled from Hebden Bridge. Only kidding).

Now here's a nice bit of Northern music from YouTube to leave you with. Wait til the man blows his whistle...

I hope that the Northerner can bring you more encouraging news after tomorrow's meeting.