A vital service which provides books on loan to elderly, disabled and housebound people has been cancelled for a month because it operates out of part of Bradford’s Central Library, which has been closed down due to safety risks.

The home library service is run from the second floor of the city-centre building and sees staff visiting 650 people in their own homes and taking a selection of books for them to choose from.

Two weeks ago the Telegraph & Argus revealed how Bradford Council had been forced to close the eight-floor library building after checks identified the central staircase as a serious fire risk. Work has been carried out to enable the ground and first floors to reopen, but the remaining six floors, which house the district’s archive, non-fiction works, and local studies section, as well as the mobile and the home library service, are still out of action.

Jackie Kitwood, principal libraries officer at the Council, admitted they had temporarily suspended the delivery service for housebound people as staff could not get the books due to problems at the central library.

She said: “We hope to resume the service in two weeks, when we have found a storage area for these books.”