Libraries across the district may open on Sundays for the first time in their history.

The move, believed to be the first of its kind in West Yorkshire, comes as an increasing numbers of shops open for business.

Today, chairman of the Council's leisure committee Councillor Barry Thorne confirmed officers were looking at costs, trends and the situation in other authorities.

But Colin Macdonald, libraries and information services manager at the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Library Service, said he believed it would be a first for the county if the plans got the go-ahead.

He said: "So far, about half a dozen libraries round the country open to the public on Sunday, including many in the London boroughs and a few in the West Midlands."

The London Borough of Sutton has been operating a successful Sunday service since January 1995.

A spokesman for Sutton Council said: "Sunday opening in Sutton has been an outstanding success. It has attracted a lot of new users, particularly families visiting together as a unit."

But Margaret Minshull, principal librarian for public services at Bradford Central, said the plan was a long way to becoming reality.

She said: "It's very much in the pipeline and we have to investigate costing and the public demand for such a service.

"Everyone wants to give the best service to the public as possible, but much research has to be done and it may be that, if we open on a Sunday, the library may have to shut at other times in the week.

"Once a decision is made, it will have to go through staff unions for approval."

The move would bring the libraries in line with the district's museums which already open on Sundays, but shut on Mondays.

Coun Thorne said: "Trends are changing and we are looking at Sunday opening, but it would not be in the foreseeable future.

"The stumbling block would be the cost and there would also be the matter of the staff working anti-social hours."

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