Keep fit and leisure activities are set to cost more in the New Year as City Hall prepares to raise prices.

The review of fees and charges for sport and leisure facilities will be scrutinised by the council's executive committee next week.

Prices are expected to rise in line with inflation in a bid to keep up standards at sports centres, swimming pools, theatres, museums, libraries and cemeteries, a report reveals.

If approved, the charges will come into effect in January and some of the extra cash raised will be used to pay for the cost of another charges review in 2003/4 as advised by the Audit Comission.

One charge that the review wants to stay the same is the joining fee for Passport to Leisure, a scheme which offers discounts for people on low income or state benefits.

The passport will remain £2.20 for adults and £1.10 for juniors until it is reviewed.

A £2.50 charge for word processing in libraries looks set to be scrapped. If the increases go ahead in the New Year they will include:

l a five per cent rise in fitness suite charges, except at Richard Dunn Sports Centre, Keighley Leisure Centre and Thornton Recreation Centre, where prices will be reviewed after refurbishment work later in the new year

l visits to swimming pools will go up by 5p - except for junior Passport to Leisure holders, whose rate will stay the same

l hire charges for the Alhambra Theatre, Alhambra Studio, St George's Hall and other public halls will increase by five per cent

l hiring museum and gallery facilities, and civil weddings at Cartwright Hall, will go up by ten per cent; and

l room hire at libraries will go up by five per cent, and loans for CDs and cassettes go up 5p.

Councillor Anne Hawkesworth, Executive Member for the Environment, said: "With the new fees and charges our arts, heritage and leisure facilities continue to provide very good value for money.

"Our prices still compare favourably with other local authorities."