A councillor is to sign an agreement with Bradford Council on behalf of volunteers planning to take over Addingham LIbrary.

Councillor Adrian Naylor is expected to sign the service level agreement with the council in a bid to meet the August 30 deadline for the community library takeover.

Coun Naylor has been at the forefront of negotiations to keep the village library open, as Bradford Council pulls out of five small libraries to make a £70,000 saving.

The councillor is to stand as the first chairman of the Addingham Community Library organisation, which is expected to gain charitable status shortly. CRB checks on volunteers planning to staff the Main Street library is under way, and training is about to begin.

The volunteers hope to start running the library in their own right on October 1.

The council is not expected to withdraw its own staff until the volunteers are ready to take over.

Coun Naylor said the council wanted to have the agreement signed by the end of August.

Addingham’s library takeover bid has prog-ressed further than those of the other threatened libraries in the district.

Almost 30 volunteers have signed up to help run the library.