A NEW self-service library for sportsmen could be built at Castle Leisure Centre.

Town hall bosses desperately need to increase the number of opening hours at libraries to meet tough Government targets.

But they say they do not have enough money to keep existing branches open longer at nights or weekends.

The Bolton Street library would be built behind the reception office at Castle, and open 100 hours a week. Most of those hours would be self-service, where registered users would check out new leisure-themed publications using a swipe card.

But Liberal Democrat leader Wilf Davison believes relocating the library at the Art and Crafts Centre would be a better and more beneficial idea. Bury needs to increase its library opening hours by 35 per cent to meet National Library Standards by 2004 and this would cost £405,000 a year.

The leisure centre alternative would cost £206,000 to build, with annual running costs of just £25,000 because it is self-service.

Councillor Steve Perkins, executive member for lifelong learning, said that increasing library hours at regular branches would cost too much.

"Initially it seemed rather strange using Castle, but the type of books there would be of a sporting nature and the type of client would be totally different to the people who use the main library," he said.

The plan was described as a "risky experiment" by Coun Davison, who warned: "I feel we are making a short-term decision, and an expensive one. It's a lot of money to pay for a relatively small extension.

"Why can't we use that sort of capital to relocate the library into the Arts and Crafts Centre and set up a proper art gallery and improved museum?"

But Coun Perkins said it would cost "a fortune" to improve access at the Arts and Crafts Centre, which was still a centre for adult education. What the town needed was a new central library in the shopping centre.