A HI-TECH library aimed at sportsmen is to be built at Bury's Castle Leisure Centre.

The library will be self-service for three quarters of the week, meaning visitors can take out specialist sports books and videos at any time of the day.

The £250,000 plan, approved by councillors at Wednesday's (Sep 3) executive, also includes improving the centre's creche, and longer opening hours at the New Kershaw Centre library in East Bury.

Bosses hope that these moves will increase Bury's library opening hours by the 35 per cent required to meet government targets. If so, it would also give the local authority as a whole a higher grading.

Bury, following the lead of near-neighbours Trafford, is one of the first councils to build a library in a leisure centre. Members think it will lead to more people visiting the leisure centre and other libraries. It will also focus on young people, offering various activity sessions for different age groups, such as stories for under-fives and homework support for school pupils.

The library will be staffed for 25 hours a week, but open for more than 100 hours thanks to a self-service machine with electronic security technology.

Councillor Siobhan Costello, executive member for community services, said: "This is a wonderful way of taking our library services closer to people. The council is determined to make services more accessible and this kind of thing is breaking new ground."

Work should start within a month, with both schemes open to the public by next April.