The possible axeing of Bradford Council’s home delivery library service has caused dismay among pensioners groups, with one declaring its loss will leave her “bereft”.

The Labour group which runs the Council is consulting about a package of proposed cuts prompted by its need to slash £89m from its budget over the next two financial years.

The draft budget proposals for 2014 to 2016 include the loss of almost 700 jobs, the closure of seven children's centres, a reduction in youth services, the withdrawal of adult social care day centres and the end of its mobile library service, which includes the home delivery service.

Betty Thornton, 87, who lives Abbeyfield House, a sheltered accommodation block, in North Park Road, Bradford, said many of its residents relied on the home delivery service.

Mrs Thornton likened to a service as essential to the elderly as meals on wheels.

The pensioner has used the service for the last five years after moving back to Bradford.

She said of its possible loss: “This is so upsetting. I feel that this service will slip away and no-one will really realise until it is done. It will be then that the impact is felt.

“None of us could get out to a mobile library. The whole point of this is the contact with someone knocking at your door. You can choose whatever books you like. It is all about the contact and little things.

“Some people here might not talk to anyone for the rest of the day and it is just that special thing for older people.

“If you saw the pleasure it brings people, and I can’t see that the service costs alot. This service makes a tremendous difference. I am going to be bereft if it goes.”

Cyril Davies, the chairman of Keighley and Bradford Pensioner’s Association, described the proposed cuts as being “over the top”.

“My thoughts on any cuts that affect pensioners are cuts going too far,” he said.

“That is my opinion and a lot of people’s opinions. These cuts are not fair at all.”

Councillor Susan Hinchliffe admitted the decision to add the mobile library service to the cuts package had provoked other protests.

She said: “We don't want to stop the home delivery service but the savagery of Government cuts imposed disproportionately on Bradford forces us into this position.

“Central Government is cutting Bradford's budget by £115m over the next three years, on top of the £100m of cuts Bradford's already had to suffer.

“It makes me angry that decisions made in Whitehall mean Bradford is being forced into deciding which services have to go. Nevertheless this is a consultation. We're listening to what people have to say.”