COWLING is one of three Craven villages to benefit from a new supermobile library that hit the road this month.

North Yorkshire County Council’s new flagship vehicle replaces the previous supermobile library which has been retired after travelling 233,000 miles since 2004.

The supermobile library made its first stop in Cowling last week and will call at the village's St Andrew's Methodist Church car park on alternativeThursdays from 3.30pm to 5.30pm.

"Cowling's not had a library for many, many years," said Cowling parish clerk Andrew Mallinson. "This huge bus with lots of stock on it gets out to people in more remote places."

And North Yorkshire county councillor Patrick Mulligan, who represents the Airedale ward, said: "I'm really pleased it's going to Cowling. It'll be a great resource to the community. It's almost like having a library on your doorstep."

Customers will have a choice of 3,000 items of stock including books for all ages, audio books and DVDs.

Two public access computers are linked to the internet by satellite technology so people can come on board and browse the internet or the library catalogue.

The library has enough room for local school or community groups to visit and local partners such as police or health professionals can run drop-in sessions.

A total of 21 remote towns and villages across North Yorkshire, including Buckden and Kettlewell in Upper Wharfedale, will be served by the supermobile library.

The first stop in Buckden and Kettlewell was made on October 6. Fortnightly visits to the two villages will take place on Wednesdays.

The vehicle stops in the national parks car park in Buckden from10.30am to 12.30pm and in Kettlewell from 2pm to 4pm.

The supermobile library averages over 8,000 visits a year with customers borrowing around 30,000 items.

“The supermobile is highly valued by its customers,” said county councillor Chris Metcalfe, executive member for libraries. “Its staff members are praised for being friendly and helpful and people in isolated areas who are many miles from the nearest library look forward to its arrival.”

Cllr Mulligan added: "I hope it will be very successful. Residents really need to make use of it, as it could be one of those use it or lose it services to be reviewed down the road."