A MOBILE library which serves remote North Yorkshire communities will start operating a new schedule later this month.

North Yorkshire County Council’s supermobile service will call at 22 locations on a rolling fortnightly timetable, carrying about 3,000 items including books, DVSs, videos and audio books as well as offering internet access.

The authority’s conventional mobile library vans were axed last month amid bidgets cuts, but the council said the supermobile will stay at each location it visits for two hours.

Coun Chris Metcalfe, executive member for the library and information service, said: “We know the withdrawal of the mobile libraries created concerns for people who valued their service and live in the more remote parts of the county. What we are trying to do is offer a much improved replacement.

“While the supermobile will not be able to replicate the routes of all the mobiles entirely, we have drawn up a schedule which attempts to ensure people living furthest away from our library network will have the opportunity to borrow books and audio and visual items from a much larger range of stock, with the added benefit of internet access.”

Coun Metcalfe also said he hoped the supermobile would become a “focal point for other community services”.

Among the areas it will visit are Sheriff Hutton, Hovingham, Eggborough and Slingsby, and details of the schedule are available by phoning the council on 0845 8 727374 and at northyorks.gov.uk