Library services across the country have been under pressure recently, with many local authorities axeing services and even closing libraries to balance tight budgets.

Although Bradford Council is to open a new library in the city centre next month to replace the out-of-commission Central Library, it seems that one possible casualty of the need to reduce spending could be the home delivery service.

Those of us who frequently get out and about might not know much about this strand to the library service. As part of the mobile library scheme, which sees mini-libraries visit communities that don’t have their own bricks-and-mortar library, it visits places such as sheltered accommodation to offer a range of books to those who simply cannot get out of their homes.

While it is perhaps possible to argue that the mobile library service overall might not have as much attendance as it used to – particularly as people turn more and more to reading e-books – the home delivery function serves a specific sector of the community who cannot get their books any other way.

Those in sheltered accommodation or similar facilities probably don’t have an e-book reader and rely on the regular visits of the home delivery service to provide them with a book or two.

No-one should be denied the pleasure of reading, especially older people who might be confined to their accommodation due to age or infirmity, and there needs to be a rethink to try to come up with some other approach to scrapping the home delivery, even if it is decided that the mobile library service cannot be maintained as it has been in the past.