Angry councillors are demanding extra cash for books as new figures show Bradford Council is one of the lowest spenders on new library books in the country.

Figures released by the independent Public Libraries Statistics organisation during the Year of Literacy reveal that Bradford spends just £50 for every 1,000 people in the district - the equivalent of 5p a head.

It compares with £138 spent by Leeds, £184 which Calderdale sets aside for new books, and £121 in Kirklees.

Despite a recommendation for an extra £45,000 on library books this year, opposition councillors and trade unions say the cash boost is not enough. Councillor Barry Thorne, chairman of City Hall's leisure committee, is to recommend a 15 per cent increase in the £300,000 currently spent on new editions.

But the leader of the Council's Tory Group, Councillor Margaret Eaton, said: "They are banging the drum about their efforts in the Year of Literacy but they should look at their performance and compare it with the rhetoric. The Council spends a fortune bringing out glossy brochures like its new community plan. But behind the pages it is running libraries down."

Liberal democrat leader Coun Jeanette Sunderland said: "It's a miserly amount of money we are spending in comparison to our neighbours and 10 per cent more - £30,000 - isn't going to get many books.''

But Coun Thorne insisted the Council was now trying to redress the balance. He said: "For the last eight to ten years the Council itself has had to protect school budgets because that has been its high priority and that has meant things like library services and museums have had to cough up.

"Now we have a situation where we have a bit of extra money and we are trying to redress the balance."

Coun Thorne promised that Keighley Library, the second biggest library in the district, would get a substantial proportion of the new money.

Conservative Councillor Anne Hawkesworth said: "It's laughable that this is the best Bradford Council can do. We talk about raising standards of literacy in schools and we are not providing the necessary tools.''

Ian Davey, secretary of the Bradford branch of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers, said: "It's ridiculous - I encourage children to use the libraries but how are they supposed to do work if there are not enough new books? This extra money is not going to make much difference at all.''

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.