MORE than 80 library staff are to lose their jobs under cost-cutting plans approved by Kirklees Council.

Members of the Cabinet today approved plans to withdraw the six-vehicle mobile library service and reduce the number of full-time equivalent staff by 88.

The job reductions could affect more than 100 people as many library staff are in part-time positions.

Libraries which will remain fully staffed by council employees include Cleckheaton, Mirfield, Heckmondwike and Birstall.

Two libraries will close in April next year - Thornhill Lees at Dewsbury and Lepton, Huddersfield - while 16 smaller libraries will be staffed by just one council employee with support from volunteers.

Opening hours are expected to be reduced at some libraries that will remain open.

The moves will save the council a total of £1.8 million from a libraries budget of £5.7m.

Those who campaigned to save Cleckheaton library welcomed the decision. The campaign was backed by Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox (Labour).

She said: "This is a great result and the right result and I am delighted that the council has listened and taken on board the concerns and feelings of my constituents.

"It is a real shame that there will be cuts to services and staffing elsewhere in Kirklees but credit must go to the library staff, officers and Labour’s Councillor Graham Turner and his colleagues who have work so hard on this and, in spite of the scale of cuts they’re having to deal with, have come up with a plan that saves virtually the whole service."

The plan follows a four-month public consultation, a debate earlier this summer at full council and petitions containing thousands of signatures against possible closures.

Councillor Graham Turner, cabinet member for resources, blamed the deep cuts on Government reductions to the council's overall budget.

He said the council had been forced to make "very difficult decisions" because of "huge cuts from central government."

"No-one likes to remove services for anyone," he added.

"This is the best possible outcome from the budget we have."

Conservatives on the council reacted with anger at the decision, saying the elderly and isolated would be hit hard by the withdrawal of the mobile library service.

Councillor David Hall, deputy leader of the Conservative Group on the council, said it would further isolate some vulnerable members of communities.

"Yet again, those communities outside of the town centres are having their services slashed. The mobile library service is so valuable to many people, particularly the elderly, who otherwise cannot gain access to a library," he said.

"One of the council's stated priorities is to reduce social isolation, and this decision flies in the face of that aim. There seems to be a pattern emerging where rural and village communities are bearing the brunt of Labour's cuts."

The libraries that will be staffed by one council employee, supported by volunteers working with 'friends' groups, are Almondbury, Birkby/Fartown, Chestnut Centre, Denby Dale, Golcar, Greenwood Centre, Honley,

Kirkheaton, Kirkburton, Lindley, Marsden, Meltham, Rawthorpe/Dalton, Shepley Skelmanthorpe and Slaithwaite.