Skipton Library staff are to be issued with uniform shirts or T-shirts so they can be recognised by members of the public.

It will bring the High Street library in line with others across the county.

The dark blue or lilac shirts bear the North Yorkshire County Council logo and are provided to all library staff and volunteers at an annual cost of around £12,000.

The council, which is currently consulting on cuts of £92 million between now and April, 2015 and is faced with a further £77 million in the four years after that, spends around £38,000 every two or three years on supplying the shirts.

Just last week, Craven councillors were told of cuts to the county council’s subsidised bus routes, including school buses, of around 25 per cent.

A council spokesman said the library shirts were provided so members of the public could recognise staff members and were replaced every two or three years.

But the move, to bring Skipton line with all other North Yorkshire County Council-run libraries, has been labelled a waste of money.

One member of staff, who wished not to be named, said: “This is totally ridiculous when the library service is pleading poverty and closing branches all over the place.”

And Skipton ward councillor Polly English said “This is absolutely ludicrous given all the cutbacks we are having to make and saying libraries like Gargrave have to be run by volunteers.”

Coun English, who added the first she knew of it was when she was contacted by the Herald, said she would bring it up with the lead member for libraries at the earliest opportunity.

“I can’t understand why they can’t just have a badge hanging from their necks like councillors do to identify them to the public, they don’t need a T-shirt,” she said.